QinetiQ : Mark Westwood appointed Head of the Centre of Aeronautics at Cranfield

Mark Westwood has been appointed the new Head of the Centre of Aeronautics at Cranfield University. Mark will be joining Cranfield from the Connected Places Catapult where he is currently the Chief Technology Officer. He will take up his post at Cranfield at the end of September 2021.

The Centre for Aeronautics at Cranfield University is one of the world's largest centres for postgraduate education and research in aircraft design, aerodynamics, advanced modelling and simulation tools and methods.

Mark has spent his early career at QinetiQ, working primarily in aerospace research and development across a range of civil and military technology demonstrator programmes. In 2010, Mark was appointed as Head of Systems Engineering for Air Division within QinetiQ, responsible for a team of systems engineers working across a wide range of technology projects. Mark joined the Transport Systems Catapult in 2015 to lead projects developing automated and autonomous vehicle technologies, before moving onto the position of CTO where he has led the development of the Catapult's activities in drones and Advanced Air Mobility.

Professor Mark Westwood said: "I'm thrilled to be joining Cranfield University, an institution I have worked with for many years on some fantastic research projects. With COP26 just six months away, the eyes of the world are on the aerospace and aviation industries. Cranfield, with its proud heritage, is at the forefront of driving technologies that can help deliver a Net Zero future."

Professor Iain Gray, Director of Aerospace at Cranfield University, said: "Mark is a leading innovative thinker in autonomous vehicles and transport technologies. We are delighted that he is joining us where he will lead one of the world's largest centres for postgraduate aeronautical engineering."

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Notes to Editors:

Please find available for download a photograph of Mark Westwood

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About Cranfield University

Cranfield is a specialist postgraduate university that is a global leader for education and transformational research in technology and management.

Aerospace at Cranfield

Cranfield is the number one university in Europe for aerospace. We are one of the few universities in the world to have its own airport. Our history and heritage in aircraft research and design over the last 70 years is extending into the future with new capabilities in aircraft electrification, unmanned aerial vehicle technology and urban mobility.

As the UK's most business-engaged University, we have long-term relationships and close commercial partnerships with many companies in the sector including Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing and Rolls-Royce.

Our education, research and consultancy is enhanced by our world-class facilities including the National Flying Laboratory Centre - a unique national asset which provides a hands-on, flying experience - along with flight deck simulators and industrial-scale gas turbine engine test facilities used for performance and diagnostic studies. The Aerospace Integration Research Centre, a £35 million innovative centre built in partnership with Airbus and Rolls-Royce, fosters collaboration between industry and academia, and a new £65 million Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre is spearheading the UK's research into digital aviation technology.

Our global research airport offers a unique environment for transformational research. Interconnectivity between our facilities and across academic disciplines is enabling us to rethink the airports, airlines, airspace management and aircraft of the future in a holistic way. Barclay's first Eagle Lab dedicated to aviation technology and supporting start-ups and SMEs opened on our campus in 2019.

Our National Beyond visual line of sight Experimentation Corridor - created with partners Blue Bear Research Systems, Thales and Vodafone - provides a safe, managed environment for drone and unmanned aircraft experimentation.

Cranfield also has a long history in space systems, having undertaken space studies since the 1960s.

Notable Cranfield alumni include Warren East, CEO of Rolls-Royce plc and Ralph Hooper, who attended the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield in 1946 and went on to become one of the UK's most important post-war aircraft designers, creating the Hawker Harrier jump jet.

www.cranfield.ac.uk/aerospace

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