Professor Steve Eichhorn, a member of the Bristol Composites Institute, has been elected to the Royal Academy along with 74 leading figures in the field of engineering and technology to its Fellowship. The group consists of 60 Fellows, nine International Fellows and five Honorary Fellows.
They are drawn from every specialism from within the engineering and technology professions and cover sectors ranging from energy and defence to new materials. They have made exceptional contributions to their field: pioneering new innovations within academia and business, providing expert advice to government, and fostering a wider comprehension of engineering and technology.
Professor Eichorn has been working on cellulosic materials now for over 30 years and has carried out some fundamental measurements of its mechanical and physical properties, demonstrating uses in composite materials.
Some of his most impactful work has been on the determination of the mechanical properties of nanoscaled cellulose fibres, and their interfaces with polymers in nanocomposites. He has demonstrated how the materials can be used in wide range of applications – batteries, textile fibres, tissue engineering and most recently for energy harvesting devices. He has also worked with many companies commercializing cellulose products. He once appeared on the BBC’s One Show to demonstrate the properties of nanocellulose materials.
Professor Eichorn has taken on various leadership roles within engineering, contributing also to national institutes, such as the Henry Royce Institute. His work on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion has included building programmes to support the training of staff and students within engineering on race and racism, but also schools’ outreach, specifically aimed at Black and Black heritage young people. He was made a member of the Women’s Engineering Society, through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and has acted as a member and a chair for panels conducting reviews of Athena SWAN applications.
He has written about the decolonization of engineering, through publications and articles in magazines. He has given many talks to organizations on this subject, and one of his research papers was used as evidence in a People’s tribunal on West Papua. His work, with colleagues at Bristol, on decolonization led to an online Futurelearn course, covering STEM subjects, that has now had over 6,000 registrants.
Professor Eichorn was also an ex-officio member of the Windrush Commemoration Committee, chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin, that established a permanent memorial – a statue in Waterloo Station in London – to the Windrush Generation. This work was completed in collaboration with an engineering company – Network Rail – and there are ongoing plans for an educational piece around this that will include engineers who came on the Empire Windrush boat in 1948.
He has also worked with CARGO (Charting African Resilience Generating Opportunity), the poet Dr Lawrence Hoo and creative Charles Golding, to make classroom materials that centre the achievements of people of African descent in STEM subjects – the first of these was a NASA engineer – Dr Lonnie Johnson – and work is now continuing through the Composites (CoSEM) Centre for Doctoral Training that Professor Eichorn directs on the agriculturist and inventor George Washington Carver.
Reacting to the Fellowship announcement, Professor Eichorn said: “I am delighted to receive this recognition, but it is true to say that none of this came through individual effort, and I would like to thank all my many students, researchers, colleagues at the Universities of Bristol, Manchester and Exeter, collaborators around the world for all their work and trust that they put into me.
"My research groups have always been diverse, and this has been a huge benefit to the work that I have undertaken with them. They have been and continue to be amazing. Not only for the research they have undertaken, but how they manage to overcome their many barriers and challenges to achieve great things. I intend to use my fellowship to continue advocating for them, and others like them.”
The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 18 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: “Today’s cohort join a community of around 1,700 of some of the most talented engineers and innovators in the UK and around the globe. Their knowledge and experience make them uniquely well placed to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world, and our determination to advance and promote excellence in engineering remains undimmed.”