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Eric Ash

Sir Eric Albert Ash CBE FRS FEng FIET (born 31 January 1928) is a distinguished German-born British electrical engineer and past Rector of Imperial College.

Born in Berlin, Ash emigrated with his family to Britain in 1938 to escape Nazism. Educated at University College School, he won a scholarship to Imperial College London aged 17, and after graduating in electrical engineering, he continued his studies with doctoral research. His Ph.D. supervisor was Dennis Gabor, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, and his thesis was published as Electron Interaction Effects (1952). He worked on microwave tubes as a Fulbright scholar at Stanford University for two years, before returning to the UK with his American wife, Clare, to continue this work at the Standard Telecommunications Laboratory (now Nortel) in London.

He joined the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College London (UCL) in 1963, became a full Professor in 1967 and was appointed Head of Department in 1980. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on March 17, 1977, and was awarded its Clifford Paterson medal shortly afterwards. He worked on problems in physical electronics, ultrasonic signal processing and imaging. He won the Marconi Prize in 1984 "for leadership in electronic technology, including surface acoustic wave devices and optical fibre communications"^[1]. He won the Royal Society Royal Medal in 1986, in "recognition of his outstanding researches on acoustic microscopy leading to wholly new techniques and substantial improvements in resolution of acoustic microscopes"^[2]. He also won the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) Faraday Medal. He is also a Senior Member and Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (an organisation originally based in the United States that complements the IEE).

He became Rector of Imperial College in 1985. He sat on the board of British Telecom as a non-executive director from 1987-1993. In 1988 he was President of the IEE for one year.

After retiring as Rector 1993 he was an emeritus Professor in the Department of Physics at UCL, 1993-1998, working on educational technology. He acted as CEO of the Student Loans Company 1994-1996, remaining a non-executive director of the company until the end of August 2000. He was Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Society 1997-2002. He has also served as a trustee of a number of other organisations lincluding the Afghan Educational Trust^[3], the Dennis Rosen Memorial Trust, the Royal Institution, the Science Museum (London) and the Wolfson Foundation.

1. ^ Details of the 1984 Marconi Prize
2. ^ Royal Society page on the Royal Medal
3. ^ Daily Telegraph article about the Afgan Educational Trust

• Includes a short biography
• Transcript of a biographical interview