Engineer’s work on energy systems recognised with MBE

A Lancaster University Professorial Fellow has been recognised in the New Year's Honours for his services to engineering. Professor Roger Kemp, who has been at Lancaster University since 2003 and has lectured on postgraduate safety engineering and programmes and on energy systems, will be awarded the MBE. Professor Kemp's recent work has researched the engineering changes necessary to Britain's electricity system as it moves from a network dominated by a few dozen large power stations to one that can accommodate thousands of small generators producing electricity from the sun, wind and waves that will be needed to meet the commitments made last month in Paris. He had a long career in industry before moving into academia. This has included running the international consortium producing the £1billion Eurostar project during its design and development phase, which included coordinating the work of 17 major companies in France, Britain and Belgium. He said: "The great thing about engineering is seeing all the design calculations and drawings turned into something as impressive as the Eurostar fleet. The scariest day of my career was 6 May 1994 when the Queen and hundreds of politicians and journalists set off from Waterloo Station for the opening of the Channel Tunnel on a train for which I had been responsible.