DSAC Organisation, Roles & Membership

The DSAC Secretariat

The Defence Science and Technology (DST) office provides the permanent Secretariat to support DSAC, and one of the senior members of staff is the Executive Officer of DSAC. The Secretariat is maintained by the DST-Strategy Assurance and DSAC (DST-Strategy AD) office.

Further information can be obtained from: The Secretariat, DST-Strategy AD, 01.M.14, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2HB Tel: 020 7218-7996; Fax: 020 7218-9678; Email: DST-StrategyDSACOffice@mod.uk or from the Related Pages link.

The DSAC Council

Each Council member champions one or more area of expertise, each area comprising of a network of academics and industrialists, who are experts in their own field, drawn from the Independent Science and Technology Advice (ISTA) register. The current areas of expertise are:

1. RF Engineering
2. Electro-optics Engineering
3. Signal and Information Processing
4. Network Systems and Architectures
5. Control System Engineering
6. Civil and Structural Engineering
7. Electronic Materials and Devices
8. Structural and Smart Materials
9. Energetics
10. Chemistry
11. Biology
12. Medical Science
13. Human and Social Sciences
14. Fluid Dynamics
15. Operational Analysis and Mathematical Modelling
16. Systems Engineering and Integration
17. Electrical Engineering
18. Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science
19. UAS and Aeronautical Engineering
20. IT Security and Cyber.

These experts can be called on for specific tasks such as manning Working Parties (WPs) or Audits. Council delivers most of its advice through reports produced by single-issue WPs, which disband on completion of their task. DSAC also organises Defence Science Seminars when it wishes to transmit a key message to a wider audience within MOD than may be reached by its usual reports.

All DSAC bodies (i.e. Council and WPs) are chaired by an independent member, but all have official members from MOD, and most have members from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). A few also have members from the Meteorological Office, and from other Government Departments.

Council's official members include the Science & Technology Director and Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Equipment Capability).

All DSAC independent members are senior individuals recruited from academia and industry.

All are specialists in a branch of science, engineering, technology, or medicine of relevance to the Ministry of Defence. The Chairman of DSAC is Professor Ian Poll OBE FREng FCGI FAIAA FRAEs. The primary role of the independent members is to provide independent, objective, timely, advice, based on their own knowledge and experience.

The principal roles of the MOD and other official members are to provide information about MOD's current policies, programmes, plans, priorities, and problems to the independents, and to facilitate their contacts with appropriate MOD staff. DSAC working parties generally have secretaries, usually from Dstl, to support the independent chairmen. Dstl input to DSAC's working parties is fully funded through the DSAC Secretariat.

DSAC Independents: Status, Security and Disclosure of Information All independent members of DSAC are appointed in a personal capacity, not as a representative of their employer or any other organisation. They are also security vetted to at least SC before being appointed.

This allows them regular and constant access to material up to (and including) Secret, and occasional access to Top Secret material.On appointment, all independent members sign a set of Terms and Conditions.

This includes a statement that they may not disclose information received through membership of a DSAC body (e.g. Council, Board, working party, Register etc), to anyone who is not either a MOD employee, or another DSAC member, without the prior agreement of the body concerned and the DSAC Secretary (DST-Strategy AD). The DSAC Secretary will seek advice from the relevant authority.

The independent members are appointed for a three-year term, with the possibility of reappointment for a 2nd three-year term. Independent members are eligible to claim fees as follows: DSAC Chairman:£465/d; Council Members £380/d and Register Members: £321/d.

They may also claim Travel & Subsistence Allowances, for their DSAC activities. The DSAC Secretariat (through DST-Strategy BC) processes their claims.

The DSAC Membership

Chairman DSAC

Professor Ian Poll, OBE FREng FCGI FAIAA FRAeS

Ian Poll is Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Cranfield University and Technical Director of Cranfield Aerospace Ltd. A graduate of Imperial College, he has 35 years experience in both the academic and commercial domains. He has particular expertise in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, air vehicle performance and design and the impact of aviation on the environment.

His career began at Hawker Siddeley Aviation before moving to the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1975. He was appointed Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Manchester in 1985, later becoming Head of Manchester's Department of Engineering. In 1995, he returned to Cranfield as Head of the College of Aeronautics and he was Director of Cranfield College of Aeronautics from 2001 until 2004. He created Cranfield Aerospace Ltd in 1997 and now serves as Technical Director and Board Member.

The author of over 100 journal and conference papers and he has delivered more than 100 lectures, colloquia and seminars on aerospace and related topics. These include the Royal Aeronautical Society's prestigious Wilbur and Orville Wright (2002), Lanchester (2008) and Handley Page (2009) annual lectures and he was the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Hugh L. Dryden lecturer for 2010. He has been visiting research scientist at NASA Langley, NASA Ames and Stanford University. He was the UK academic member of the NATO AGARD Fluid Dynamics Panel from 1990 to 1996 and he has served on a number of Government Advisory Committees, including the DTI Aerospace Committee, the Aerospace Innovation and Growth Team and the Aerospace Technology Steering Group. In addition, he is currently the academic member on the Civil Aviation Authority's UAS Steering Committee.

He was an elected Council Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2004 to 2007, an elected Council Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society from 1996 until 2010 and, currently, he is a Council Member of the Air League. He was the 74th President of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2001, and he was the President of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences from 2008 until 2010.

A Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the City and Guilds Institute of London, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Royal Aeronautical Society, he was awarded the OBE in 2002 in recognition of his contributions to the Cranfield College of Aeronautics.

Website: http://www.cranfieldaerospace.com/index.php?mod=cae_management_detail&id_ppl=15

DSAC Deputy Chairman

Dr Andy Low OBE FREng FIET FInstP

Dr Andy Low is a senior industrialist with extensive experience in the research and development of advanced systems for defence.

He was awarded his first degree in 1975 in Electrical Sciences and a Ph.D. in Opto-electronics in 1979, both from Cambridge University. He worked for 7 years for a small independent Systems House before moving to Plessey Roke Manor in 1986 where he ran the Radio Communication research team there until 1992 when he took over the role of Managing Director. During this time Roke Manor was taken over by Siemens. In 1996 he moved to become MD of Siemens Environmental Systems Ltd. In 1998 he was enticed to join Racal as the MD of Racal Research Ltd. Shortly thereafter Racal was taken over by Thomson CSF, now Thales. Then, as Technical Director for Thales in the UK, he was responsible for technology strategy including the relationship with key customers (eg the MoD R&T community), technical assurance of major programmes, competency development (particularly in systems engineering) and was head of profession for the 4000 engineers in Thales. In 2005 he became an independent consultant.

He is particularly interested in the application of modern system engineering skills to complex programmes and in the management of R&T within a highly constrained cost/risk/performance regime. His technical interests cover a very wide range including cyber, communications, sensors, ISTAR and Human Factors.

He has served on a number of advisory boards including Intellect, DPA Integration Authority, NITEworks (as chairman), University departments at Glamorgan, Southampton, Surrey, Cranfield and Sussex and is a member of the MoD/Industry Research & Development Group. He is currently deputy chair of the MoD Defence Scientific Advisory Council non-executive director of the MoD Research & Development Board.

Other Independent Council Members

Mr John Ames, FIET

John Ames is Director of Kenilworth Carr Consulting Ltd. Until recently he was a senior BT Executive with 30 years experience in the Communications industry. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the FIET (formally IEE).

His current roles include: technology futures consultant for BT and Associate to Futurizon, a future technology, market and strategy consulting company. He is also Domain Expert in Braoadband Access and Fixed Network Infrastructure for the ICT Knowledge Transfer Network (DC-KTN), an organisation that promotes knowledge between Industry, Academia and Government in the UK.

John Ames is a member of the Industrial Advisory Committee and visiting lecturer at the University of Durham and has acted as technology consultant to the MOD since 2004 in the fields of telecommunications, emerging technologies, systems engineering and management of technology. He is now a member of DSAC Council.

Professor Peter G Blain CBE

Professor Peter Blain is Director of the Medical Toxiology Centre at the University of Newcastle. He is Professor of Environmental Medicine and a Consultant Physician to Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is also Consultant in Emergency Response Medicine to the Health Protection Agency and Department of Health. Professor Blain is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physcians of London and Edinburgh, the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, the Society of Biology and the British Toxicology Society. Professor Blain was made a CBE in 2002 for services to defence medicine.

Professor Blain's research interests are primarily in clinical toxicology and the translation of mechanistic toxicology research to clinical practice. His major research projects are in neurotoxicology, diagnostics biomarkers, CBRN medical countermeasures and emergency response interventions.

He is currently chairman of the Advisory Group on Military Medicine (MOD) and the Expert Group on the Medical Management of Casualties from Terrorism (DH).

Website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/mtc/people/profile/peter.blain

Professor Helga Drummond

Professor Helga Drummond is the Professor of Decision Sciences at the University of Liverpool’s Management School. She joined DSAC in 2008 having previously been a Non-Executive Director of the Service Personnel and Veterans’ Agency and before that Non-Executive Director of the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency and Non-Executive Director of the Veterans’ Agency and an Independent Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Audit and Finance Committees. Professor Drummond also serves as a lay Member of the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Joint Council of the Inns of Court (appointed by the Bar Standards Board), and the General Optical Council Fitness to Practice Committee (appointed by the Privy Council).

Her research interests are in social and psychological aspects of decision making and phenomenological sociology including IT, systems operation and risk management. In addition to theoretical contributions Professor Drummond has also conducted empirical studies of decision failures in small businesses and large high profile failures including major IT projects and the collapse of Barings’ bank. She has also published widely for practising managers and policy makers including a book commissioned by The Economist magazine. Recent invitations to speak include Gresham College, Oxford University and the Defence Academy Shrivenham.

Website:http://tulip.liv.ac.uk/portal/pls/portal/tulwwwmerge.mergepage?p_template=ulms&p_tulipproc=staff&p_params=%3Fp_func%3Dteldir%26p_hash%3DA463763%26p_url%3DBL%26p_template%3Dulms

Professor Peter Fryer FIChemE FREng

Peter Fryer is the Head of the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a former Council member of BBSRC.

He is the Director of the EPSRC-supported Engineering Doctoral Centre in Formulation Engineering, which integrates research into the manufacture of microstructured products in the pharma, food, personal care and fine chemicals industries. His research interests lie along the interface between engineering and biology, and have included projects on microbial food safety, hygienic design, manufacturing of chocolate and the engineering modelling of eating and digestion.

Website:  http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/chemical-engineering/fryer-peter.aspx

Professor Doug Greenhalgh, FIS

Professor Doug Greenhalgh is a Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of Engineering and Built Environment at Glasgow Caledonian University. His current research concerns the sensitive detection and measurement of atmospheric or gas-phase nanoparticles and has over 130 publications in the fields of chemistry, physics, optics and engineering.

Doug Greenhalgh is the UK’s representative on the International Energy Agency’s collaborative programme on Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction in Combustion and where he is a Past Chair of the programme’s Executive Committee. He is also a founding Vice-President of EUCASS the European Conference for Aerospace Sciences European Research. He has served on the DTI's Thermal Metrology Working Party which oversees NPL's research work in this area, chaired several EPSRC panels, and was Chairman of the MRes Evaluation Committee during its initial development phase.

Website: http://www.gcu.ac.uk/theuniversity/principalvice-chancellorsoffice/newdeans/professordouglasgreenhalgh/

Professor Peter Grindrod, CBE, FIMA

Professor Peter Grindrod is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Reading, Co-Director of the Center for the Mathematics of Human Behaviour, and the university's Director of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange. Prior to that he was co-founder and Technical Director for a self-funded company, Numbercraft Limited, and later a Vice president of the US firm Lawson Software, which acquired Numbercraft. His work enabled large retail and customer services companies and their suppliers to obtain valuable insights in to consumer habits by interpreting and modelling their large commercial data sets. He has an active interest in mathematical biology and functional genomics, acting as an advisor to the Wellcome Trust's functional genomics panel. He recent research is in the field of evolving graphs and their applications to social media, digital marketing, and peer to peer communications. He has worked in various fields including complex system modelling, reaction diffusion, dynamics systems analysis of signals, range dependent graph theory, Bayesian forecasting methods, self tuning Markov models, and fuzzy logic.

Dr Mike Markin, OBE, FRAeS

Originally specialising as an optical physicist Mike’s involvement with Night Vision Devices began in 1969 with the British Aircraft Corporation working on the theory of vision through first generation tubes, plus a secondment to the Concorde cockpit design team.

Subsequently joining the Ministry of Defence much of his career was based at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough researching the full range of electro-optical sensors and countermeasures to them, and including wider responsibilities, for example for test and experimental flying, a broad range of guided weapon projects, and the initial audit of the Eurofighter programme.

Posted to another organisation immediately before the First Gulf War he led an operational intelligence unit for which he was awarded the OBE.

Latterly, as Director General of Research and Technology in MOD HQ he was a founder member of the Joint Capabilities Board responsible for specifying the Defence Future Equipment Programme and, on promotion to 3 Star level as Science and Technology Director, he became Head of Profession for the 12000 or so scientists and engineers across the Department.

Since retirement Mike has been Chief Judge on the MOD Grand Challenge initiative and is the Systems member of the DSAC Council. He retains a passion for the countryside, for the night sky, and for anything that flies!

Professor Ursula Martin, FIET

Professor Ursula Martin is Vice-Principal at Queen Mary University of London with overall responsibility for science and engineering. She is a Fellow of both the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the British Computer Society, and was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Foresight Fellowship. Her research interests concern the application of computer science techniques to engineering design, with the current focus on the use of novel logic techniques to provide a new understanding of dynamical systems in engineering applications, and greater assurance in designing digital control systems. She is currently leading broad Queen Mary interdisciplinary initiatives in a number of projects combining science and engineering with the humanities and medicine.

Ursula Martin has been a member of the EPSRC Strategic Advisory Group and was Director of its Mathematics for IT initiative. She was the Founding Chair of the Computer Science Committee of the London Mathematical Society as well as being a member of its Council and Board of Trustees. She is currently a member of the Learned and Knowledge Services Board of the British Computer Society, and a member of the Research Appointments Panel for the Royal Society.

Website: http://www.dcs.qmul.ac.uk/~uhmm/

Professor John McDermid, OBE, FREng

Professor John McDermid is Head of Department of Computer Science at the University of York. He is Professor of Software Engineering and leader of the High Integrity Systems Engineering (HISE) Group within the Department. He has run major research programmes with defence and aerospace primes, e.g. Airbus, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce since the early 1990s. These programmes have made significant contributions to the engineering of high integrity aerospace systems influencing the design of major products such as Typhoon, the Airbus A380 and Rolls-Royce civil aircraft engine controllers. He led the security activities in the International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Networked Systems, funded by the US Army and the MoD. He was Technical Director of the MoD-funded, Software Systems Engineering Initiative (SSEI) for over three years. He works with the professional bodies, including the Royal Academy of Engineering, seeking to improve standards in software and systems engineering. He undertakes a range of consultancy activities for Government and Industrial clients both in the UK and overseas, and has influenced standards, e.g. Defence Standard 00-56. He has been a director or non-executive director of a number of spin-out companies.

Website: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~jam/

Professor Gareth Padfield, BSc, PhD, CEng, FRAeS, FREng

Gareth Padfield is an Aeronautical Engineer, receiving his BSc from the University of London (QMC) in 1969 and his PhD in Flight Dynamics from Cranfield College of Aeronautics in 1976. During the intervening years he held a position at Westland Helicopters as a stability and control engineer. He joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in 1977 and during his time at the RAE (later Defence Evaluation and Research Agency), he specialised in helicopter flight research, engaged in flight test, modelling and simulation, handling qualities and flight control developments. His final position in DERA was Rotorcraft Chief Scientist (Air Systems) at Grade 5(IM) level. Gareth took up the James Bibby Chair in Aerospace Engineering at The University of Liverpool in August 1999 where he developed research activities in flight handling qualities and control, modelling and simulation of fixed and rotary wing aircraft. In August 2004, he was appointed Head of the Department of Engineering and served this role for 5 years. Gareth formally retired in November 2011 and now holds an Emeritus Professorship at Liverpool and runs a consultancy business Flight Stability and Control. Gareth is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1990. He is an Honorary member of the American Helicopter Society Modelling and Simulation Technical Committee and a member of the AHS Handling Qualities Technical Committee, Safety Committee and Education Committee. He is a member of the Defence Science Advisory Council.

http://tulip.liv.ac.uk/pls/new_portal/tulwwwmerge.mergepage?p_template=m_eg&p_tulipproc=staff&p_params=%3Fp_func%3Dteldir%26p_hash%3DA515636%26p_url%3DEG%26p_template%3Dm_eg 

Professor Douglas Paul, FinstP, FRSE

Professor Douglas Paul is the Professor of Semiconductor Devices and Director of the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre in the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow. He is a Fellow of both the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a senior member of the IEEE.

Douglas Paul's main research interests lie in nanoelectronics, nanofabrication, autonomous sensing, millimetre-wave and terahertz technology, energy harvesting, thermoelectrics and Peltier coolers.

Simon Wessely is a member of a number of UK Government bodies including the Hospital security Emergency and Crowd Management Committee, the Expert Advisory Group for the Emergency Response Division of the health protection Agency, the Scientific Advisory Panel on Emergency Response and is a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Principal Investigator for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).

Website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr/contact/team/s_wessely.html