Chinese recognition for Emeritus Professor Roger Falconer

Cardiff School of Engineering’s Professor Roger Falconer, now Emeritus Professor of Water Engineering (since October 2018) and Founding Director of the Hydro-environmental Research Centre, was elected a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), in the biennial election in November of all CAE Members.

Roger was informed by the President of CAE of his election to the Academy, in recognition of his ‘distinguished contributions to hydraulic engineering and to the promotion of China-UK exchanges and cooperation in the field’. Membership of the CAE is the highest academic title in engineering science and technology in China and is a lifelong honour, with election being made by the existing members of the CAE. Foreign members are non-Chinese citizens who are distinguished engineers recognised for their achievements.

Roger first started collaborating with China through Tongji University in 1981 where he has worked on design formulations for harbours and marinas to maximise water quality. Since that date he has continuously collaborated with several top Chinese universities and government institutes. At Tsinghua University he collaborated on the development of a software tool CONTANT for the design of water supply disinfection tanks, and at Wuhan University the development of new formulations for the stability of people and vehicles in floods. He worked with Tianjin University and the Municipal Government on modelling Bohai Bay and Sea as a system, with the objective of balancing economic development of the bay for increased shipping with minimising the impact on the coastal environment.

Roger has also published extensively with Chinese co-authors (in 116 of 206 journal papers to-date) and has been appointed Honorary Professor at several Chinese universities, including Tongji, Tianjin, Sichuan and China’s Institute of Water and Hydropower Research.