Professor Alan Partridge, Director of the Defence Materials Centre of Excellence at Royce, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering at the Academy’s AGM on 23 September 2026. He is one of 75 leading figures in the field of engineering and technology elected to the Royal Academy’s Fellowship this year, including a record 24 women.
This year’s new Fellows, announced in the year of the Academy’s 50th anniversary, are making an incredible impact across the engineering and technology sector with innovations in clean energy, AI, medicine and public health. These leading figures have influenced academia and business, worked to widen participation in engineering for people from underrepresented backgrounds, and provided expert policy advice to government.
The Fellows elected this year reflect the lasting impact of the Academy’s Fellowship Fit for the Future initiative, launched in July 2020 ahead of the Academy’s 50th anniversary. The campaign successfully exceeded its ambition, with more than 50% of Fellows elected during the initiative coming from underrepresented groups. As a result, the initiative has now been fully embedded into the Academy’s business-as-usual Fellowship processes. It continues to drive nominations of outstanding engineers from a broader range of backgrounds, including women, disabled and LGBTQ+ engineers, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, non-traditional educational pathways and emerging industries, as well as engineers who have achieved excellence at an earlier career stage than has traditionally been recognised.
The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 19 October, 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 engineer better lives.
Sir John Lazar CBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:
“As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year, we also mark the Academy’s achievements since it was founded as the Fellowship of Engineering on 11 June 1976 at Buckingham Palace, with the enthusiastic backing of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, our Founding Senior Fellow. Our Fellowship has been at the core of our work for the past 50 years, connecting the businesses leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers and policymakers who are at the heart of the UK’s technological progress.
“This year’s cohort will be joining a community of over 1,700 top engineers and innovators in the UK and around the world. Together, we ensure that bright ideas are supported, scaled and shared, turning ambition into innovation and innovation into impact. We aim to strengthen education, skills and inclusion to inspire and equip the engineers of today and tomorrow.”
A full list of the newly-elected Fellows is available on the Royal Academy of Engineering website.
