Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive

Professor Andy Long FREng is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at Northumbria University.

Prior to becoming Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Northumbria University, Newcastle, Professor Andy Long FREng was a member of staff at the University of Nottingham since 1990. He most recently served as Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor leading on strategy development and resource allocation across the University and line managing the five Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellors. Previously he was Dean and then Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Engineering from 2011 to 2018. Andy was also Chair of the Executive Management Group for Midlands Innovation, a partnership between Aston, Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick Universities. He was awarded a personal Chair in Mechanics of Materials in 2004.

Andy has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Nottingham, which was awarded for work on process modelling for the manufacture of composite materials. Prior to this, he obtained a BSc in Applied Mathematics from Warwick University and an MSc in Computer Integrated Engineering from Loughborough University. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He served as Course Director in Mechanical Engineering (2004-08) and Head of the Polymer Composites Group (2004-08).

Andy’s research interests are on the design and manufacture of Polymer Composites for demanding applications particularly in the aerospace, automotive and energy sectors. Andy was founding Director of the EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub, collaborating with a number of other universities as well as companies in the field of high performance composites. He has published over 350 papers including around 130 refereed journal papers, co-authored/edited three textbooks on polymer composites, supervised over 30 successful PhD students, and been principal investigator for research grants totalling around £33million. Andy remained involved in teaching throughout his time at Nottingham, delivering classes on advanced materials, engineering design and computational modelling.

Andy was chair of the SAMPE UK & Ireland Chapter and co-organiser of several international conferences and a member of the Composites Leadership Forum, responsible for delivery and development of the UK Composites Strategy, reporting to the UK Government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). He was also a Director of the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. In 2006 he was awarded the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Rosenhain Medal in recognition of distinguished achievement in materials science, and in 2014 was inducted as a SAMPE Fellow for significant contributions in materials and process engineering technology. In 2019 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

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