UCL Engineering Professors elected as Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering

The RAEng Fellowship represents the nation’s best engineering researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and industry leaders, with around 50 Fellows joining the roll call each year.  

Those awarded the honour from UCL Engineering in 2024 are:

Professor Rebecca Shipley (UCL Mechanical Engineering)
Professor Shipley is an internationally recognised research leader in computational modelling in healthcare. She has pioneered model-based techniques to better understand how diseased and damaged tissues function and repair, including in cancer and nerve injury, as well as data-driven models in physiology. She is a passionate advocate for healthcare engineering and the translation of scientific discoveries into practice. During the pandemic, Rebecca co-led the UCL-Ventura programme, which delivered non-invasive ventilators in the UK and globally. Rebecca led the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering during between 2018 and -2024 and now is Chief Research Officer at UCLPartners. 

Professor Eva Sorensen (UCL Chemical Engineering)
Professor Sorensen is a global leader in separations research and chemical engineering education. Her seminal work on the modelling, design and control of novel separation technologies has facilitated the adoption of state-of-the-art distillation, membrane and chromatography technologies. This has resulted in process intensification and increased energy efficiency. She is also internationally recognised for innovation in engineering education and has been instrumental in the development of a new undergraduate Integrated engineering programme at UCL. She is wholly committed to making engineering more inclusive, leading her department to become the first UK Athena SWAN Gold Award recipient in chemical engineering. 

Professor Shipley said:

““I am honoured to be elected as a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering. The Academy is leading the charge on tackling some of the most important challenges in our society. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to continue collaborating with them as a Fellow, particularly at the intersection of engineering, computing and health.”

Professor Sorensen said:

““I am deeply honoured and delighted to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. I have always been very proud of being a chemical engineering, and a Fellow of the IChemE, and I am looking forward to be interacting more closely also with engineers from different backgrounds in supporting the work of the Academy. Only by working together with engineers, scientists and others will we be able to solve the many global challenges that we are currently facing, particularly with regards to climate change and healthcare, key priority areas for engineering.”

Professor Andy Nisbet, Interim Dean of UCL Engineering said.  

““I’m delighted to celebrate the achievements of Professor Shipley and Professor Sorensen. Their admission reflects each of their extremely valuable contributions to the world of engineering and I am excited to see what the future may bring for two of UCL’s outstanding engineering leaders.”         

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 27 November, when each Fellow will sign the roll book. In joining the Fellowship, they will lend their unique capabilities to achieving the Academy’s overarching strategic goal to harness the power of engineering to create a sustainable society and an inclusive economy for all.

Dr John Lazar CBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

““Our new Fellows represent some of the most talented people in the world of engineering and are taken from the ranks of those who are aiming to address some of our most critical problems. We are proud to say that many of our newly elected Fellows have come from underrepresented groups in engineering and related sectors and we hope this helps to tackle some of the issues around a lack of diversity within the profession. There is ample evidence that a wider pool of ideas and experiences helps to improve decision-making and develop novel solutions to global challenges.”

Links 

• Professor Rebecca Shipley's Profile
• Professor Eva Sorensen's Profile
• UCL Mechanical Engineering
• UCL Chemical Engineering 
• Royal Academy of Engineering