Professor Alistair Borthwick

Alistair Borthwick was Professor of Applied Hydrodynamics and Head of the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment at the University of Edinburgh.

He was previously Professor and Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University College, Cork, Ireland and prior to that was Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at St Edmund Hall, where he worked for 21 years. From 1984-90, he was a Lecturer at the University of Salford.

Alistair has more than 40 years’ experience in civil, coastal and offshore engineering. While working for Brown & Root (UK) Ltd, he was a member of the design team of the Hutton Tension Leg Platform, which won the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement in 1984. He was the Founding Director of the SFI Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland. He holds honorary professorships at Peking University, NUI Galway, Wuhan University, China University of Geosciences, University College Cork, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Alistair’s research interests include environmental fluid mechanics, river basin management, coastal and offshore processes, water and wastewater treatment, and marine renewable energy. Alistair was awarded the title of Dr honoris causa by Budapest Műegyetem for contributions to Civil Engineering in 2016. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He is very proud to have tutored a wonderful group of engineering Aularians during his time at the Hall.

He is a staunch supporter of Plymouth Argyle (which has yet to win the FA cup, unlike Oxford University!).

Floreat Ingenia.  Floreat Aula.