A University of Strathclyde Professor from the Faculty of Engineering has received an accolade from the European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE) in recognition of his career.

Bill Leithead, Professor of Systems and Control in Strathclyde’s Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering (EEE), has received Honorary Membership of the Academy, becoming only the sixth person to be given the accolade in the past decade.

He has received the award in recognition of a career in which he has published 300 research papers and headed Strathclyde’s EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures, which has trained more than 150 future energy leaders.

Professor Athanasios Kolios, President of EAWE, has praised Professor Leithed’s contribution to the community and conferred the honorary membership “for his life achievements in the fields of control engineering and wind energy systems.” 

Professor Leithead’s expertise is in control engineering and wind energy systems, with a particular focus on the conceptual design of wind turbines and wind turbine and farm control system design.

His award was announced during EAWE’s recent 2023 conference, held at Strathclyde.

Professor Leithead said: “I was rather surprised and honoured to receive this award from the Academy. It is, of course, a reflection of the contributions of all my colleagues in the Wind Energy and Control at Strathclyde to making it one of the leading wind energy research groups in Europe over the last three decades.”