December 2005 - Lunch in London

IIT London Chapter

IIT London Chapter held a Diwali/Christmas lunch at the Bombay Palace Restaurant in London on the 4th December, 2005, with Professor Frank Hartley DSc FRSC, Vice Chancellor of Cranfield University, United Kingdom, as its chief guest. The luncheon was attended by over 90 IIT alumni including spouses and children.

Professor Hartley graduated from Magdalene College, Oxford as a BA (later MA) DPhil and later DSc.

From 1988 - 90 Professor Hartley acted as special advisor on defence systems to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He has been a member of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee since 1987 and vice president from 1995 until 1998. He was appointed a special advisor to the House of Lords select committee on science and technology for the 1993/4 parliamentary session.

He was appointed a non-executive director of the automotive components company T & N plc in 1989 to 1998, and a regional director of the National Westminster Bank from 1990 to 1992. He was a non-executive director of the paints company Kalon from 1993 to 1999 and of Kenwood plc from 1995 until 1999.

Professor Hartley became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1976 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1996.

He has published over a dozen books, several with Japanese, Chinese and Russian editions, in the fields of chemistry and military technology.

Dr. Raj Rajagopal (alumnus) CEO of BOC Edwards introduced Prof Frank Hartley who shared some of his experiences with the IIT Alumni.

Professor Hartley’s speech was related to matters of common interest between India and Britain in the field of technology. He invited prestigious institutions like the IITs to do research in collaboration with Britain in the diminishing field of energy resources. This would help India to fulfil its future needs of self sufficiency in energy, in a vastly expanding economy.

Two areas in particular which were singled out for research were oil and natural gas in collaboration with the ONGC Research Centre in Panvel near Mumbai and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC) UK.

Professor Hartley’s answered questions from the IITians.

Chairman Raj Jain thanked Professor Hartley and all IITians for their support.