Robert Francis Boucher,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK and from arou ...

(25 April 1940 – 25 March 2009), usually known as Bob Boucher, was a British mechanical engineer, and

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

of both

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for Research univer ...

(1995–2001) the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

(2001–2007). Boucher was born in

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

on 25 April 1940 and was educated at

St Ignatius' College St Ignatius College is a Catholic Church, Catholic Voluntary aided school, voluntary aided secondary school for boys aged 11–18 in Enfield, London, England, founded by the Society of Jesus in 1894 and completely moved to its present site by 1 ...

Stamford Hill Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about northeast of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the largest concentration of orthodox Ashken ...

, Borough Polytechnic, London, and gained a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

in 1966. After postdoctoral work at the same university he moved to

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

as a researcher then a lecturer in mechanical engineering.University of Manchester
yourmanchesteronline Obituary - Bob Boucher In 1970 he joined Sheffield University as a lecturer, rising to Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1987 and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Sheffield. In 1995 he took up the position of Vice-Chancellor and

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of UMIST. In 2001 he returned to Sheffield as Vice-Chancellor until his retirement in 2007. Boucher was Chairman of the International Sector Group of

Universities UK Universities UK (UUK) is an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom. It began life in the early 20th century through informal meetings of vice-chancellors of a number of universities and principals of university colleges and ...

and Treasurer of the

Association of Commonwealth Universities The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is a charitable organization that was established in 1913, and has over 400 member institutions in over 40 countries across the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth.CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 2000 "for services to Engineering Research, Industry and Education". BBC
New Years Honours He died suddenly on 25 March 2009.

References

* BOUCHER, Prof, Robert Francis (Bob), ''Debrett's People of Today'', 2007.

External links

1940 births 2009 deaths People from Wembley Academics of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology Academics of the University of Sheffield Alumni of the University of Nottingham Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering British mechanical engineers Vice-chancellors of the University of Sheffield {{academic-administrator-stub