Alec Nigel Broers, Lord Broers FRS, HonFMedSci, FREng (b. 1938) was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University from 1996 to 2003. An eminent figure in the field of nanotechnology, he completed his schooling at Geelong Grammar and attained his undergraduate degree, in physics, from the University of Melbourne in 1959 before heading to Cambridge as a choral scholar. He studied electrical science there and then undertook his PhD, conferred in 1965. He then spent almost 20 years in the USA working in research with IBM and leading the development of chip technologies. His personal research focussed on electron microscopes and the manufacture of nanoelectronic devices and electronic circuits. In 1984 he returned to Cambridge to become Professor of Electrical Engineering and in 1992, having become Master of Churchill College, he was appointed Head of the university's Engineering Department. As Vice-Chancellor from 1996, he was instrumental in establishing Cambridge as a centre of excellence for high technology and was a powerful advocate for the integration of engineering and science. He was knighted in 1998 and in 2004 Queen Elizabeth II made him a life Peer for his services to education and engineering. A Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Broers has served on committees such as the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Foresight Panel on Information Technology, the NATO Special Panel on Nanoscience, the British government's Council for Science and Technology, and the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.
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