Creating a European Connection
September 20, 2007
Starkville, Miss.— The James Worth Bagley College of Engineering’s Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Dr. Roger King, has been awarded one of the highest honors bestowed by Cardiff University, the title of Honorary Professor. In the United Kingdom higher education world, very few educators holding Ph.D. degrees are promoted to full professor. As a result, the fact that an American scholar has been deemed with this award is a significant and rare event.
The Vice Chancellor, Nigel Palastanga, of the United Kingdom based university, made this statement in the award letter, “We believe that Honorary Professors play an important part in contributing to our research and scholarship activities and in ensuring that our students learn from scholars, scientists and practitioners working at the leading edge of their discipline.”
King’s relationship with Cardiff began a number of years ago; he earned his doctorate degree from the university. Almost twenty years later, the Associate Dean wanted to use his alum status to establish a research partnership between Cardiff’s School of Engineering and the Bagley College of Engineering (BCoE) that could prove to be beneficial to both institutions.
“We’re living in an era where the ‘Globalization of Engineering’ is of utmost importance. For instance, the Welsh economic position is similar to ours here in Mississippi. The BCoE is involved with multiple research and economic development projects to boost our economy; the same is true for Cardiff. It only seems natural to form a partnership where both universities can share best practices and outcomes.”
Cardiff University is rated as one of the top ten research universities in the United Kingdom. It holds a top tier rating of 7 out of 106 UK higher education institutions, keeping company with renowned universities, such as Cambridge, Imperial College and Oxford. In addition, several departments in its school of engineering have been awarded with a “prestigious 5*” rating in a recent analysis of UK universities’ research quality, known as the Research Assessment Exercise.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Roger King.