High flier in aviation and aerospace engineering returns to Leeds

Professor William Gale has been appointed as Chair of Aviation and Aerospace Engineering and Director of Interdisciplinary Research within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Leeds. Professor Gale will serve as the Director of the cross campus Interdisciplinary Research Institute – Earth, Energy & Environment.

A Leeds graduate in Metallurgy, followed by a Ph.D. at Cambridge, Professor Gale has returned to his alma mater after 15 years in the US, where he was both Executive Director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Transportation Centre of Excellence for Airliner Cabin Environment Research (ACER) and Alumni Professor at Auburn University in Alabama.

The ACER consortium of seven US universities is the US’ core resource for cabin environment research and development covering heath, safety and homeland security aspects of the airliner cabin environment. ACER is also extremely active at strategic and policy levels and has partnerships with some thirty key industrial partners, including Boeing, Delta Air Lines, General Electric, United Technologies and the Air Line Pilots Association International. Gale also led ACER’s expansion into other modes of transportation, to become the National Centre of Excellence for Research in the Intermodal Transport Environment (RITE).

Professor Gale’s scientific and technical expertise also saw him leading ACER’s two largest research programmes in the fields of whole airliner chemical-biological decontamination and flyable sensors for environmental monitoring. Prior to ACER/RITE, Gale had an extensive research programme on advanced materials and systems encompassing applications in both military and civil aviation; space vehicles; terrestrial and space power generation and other areas, as well as a wide range of interdisciplinary research and educational activities.

Of his appointment, Professor Gale says: “Leeds’ Engineering faculty has many research strengths that cut across aviation and aerospace issues, particularly its energy, environmental and materials engineering research. I’m looking forward to drawing this expertise together into leading interdisciplinary groups that will have an impact on central concerns and challenges in these sectors. Equally, my intent is that the Earth, Energy & Environment Institute will leverage the many and varied strengths that the University of Leeds has in sustainable energy to build a world class, highly interdisciplinary R&D programme in sustainable energy.”