The Scholarship meant a huge amount to me, especially looking back now.
Currently Head of Design & Technology at Bradfield College, I was at one time Operations Director, VT Shipbuilding, Portsmouth, responsible for building warships for the Ministry of Defence and foreign navies, with a staff of around 500 project and production personnel.
I read Metallurgy and the Science of Materials to Masters level at St Anne's College Oxford. I was awarded a Kennedy Scholarship in 1990/91 with a further six month extension to 91/92. I studied materials engineering to Masters level at MIT and got my thesis on Densification Kinetics of Composite Powders.
The Scholarship meant a huge amount to me, especially looking back now. On leaving Oxford I was unsure of what career path to follow. I had an outstanding commitment to join the RAF which was postponed for the period of the Scholarship. This allowed me to take a good look at the opportunities that existed within the academic field in my subject and convinced me that this was definitely not the direction I wanted my life to take - therefore I joined the RAF in 1992.
The scholarship also allowed me to experience living overseas in the US which was an invaluable life lesson. Having lived in the UK to that point I was able to develop an external perspective on the UK and to better appreciate things which until then I had taken for granted.
It also allowed me to get a better understanding of our US partners and allows me an easy entry to relationships with US citizens today.
Previous | Next