New Chief Scientific Adviser at the MOD

Professor Mark Welland FRS FREng has been confirmed today, Thursday 3 April 2008, as the new Chief Scientific Adviser at the Ministry of Defence.

The Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) is responsible for providing high quality scientific advice to Ministers, senior officials and the Armed Forces. This advice ensures that the Ministry of Defence has access to sound technical information and the technology to support military operations and future strategic capabilities.
Professor Welland said:

"I am delighted to have been offered the opportunity to advise on Science and Technology within the Ministry of Defence. As CSA I look forward to working with professional and dedicated staff from both the Armed Forces and Civil Service to ensure science contributes fully in supporting the role of the Armed Forces by delivering world-beating technology."

Defence Secretary, Des Browne said of the appointment:

"I am delighted to welcome Mark Welland as our new Chief Scientific Adviser. His extensive experience and his wide ranging scientific interest, together with his strong links to academia will prove invaluable to his successful tenure in this role.

"I would also like to pay tribute to Professor Sir Roy Anderson FRS whose work as Chief Scientific Adviser has significantly improved the way the MOD's research programme is developed and managed."

Professor Welland, born in October 1955, will take up his new appointment as Chief Scientific Adviser with effect from 7 April 2008. He received a BSc in Physics from the University of Leeds in 1979, a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol in 1984 and an MA from the University of Cambridge in 1988. In addition Professor Welland was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2002.

After a position as World Trade Visiting Scientist at IBM Research Division in USA between 1985-6, Professor Welland was appointed to a Lectureship in Electrical Engineering at the University of Cambridge where he is currently Professor of Nanotechnology researching into a broad range of both fundamental and applied problems.

Professor Welland succeeds Professor Sir Roy Anderson, who was appointed as the CSA at MOD in July 2004 on a fixed term appointment and who has left the MOD to rejoin Imperial College, pending his appointment as Rector this summer. Sir Roy's key achievements in the MOD include strategic alignment reviews of both the Research and Development programmes, on which the newly formed R&D Board will continue to build in future, and the publication of the Defence Technology Strategy in 2006 which for the first time set out the MoD's future priorities for Research and Development.