Alistair MacFarlane

Sir Alistair George James MacFarlane (9 May 1931 – 2 November 2021 ) was a Scottish electrical engineer and leading academic who served as Principal and Vice Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Rector, University of the Highlands and Islands.

Early career Born on 9 May 1931, MacFarlane was educated at the former Hamilton Academy.

He continued his studies at the University of Glasgow from which he graduated BSc and was (thereafter awarded DSc), the University of London, PhD and the University of Manchester, MSc.

Following working as an engineer with the laboratories of the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company Ltd., in 1959 MacFarlane was appointed Lecturer, Electrical Engineering, at Queen Mary College, University of London; promoted to Reader in 1965.

Transferring to University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1966 as Reader in Control Engineering, he was appointed Professor in 1969. Moving on to the University of Cambridge, MacFarlane was there appointed Professor of Control Engineering (1974–1990) and served as Head, Information Engineering Division, and Fellow, Selwyn College, Cambridge, 1974–78, and as Vice-Master, 1980–88. He was an Honorary Fellow of the college from 1978.

He died on 2 November 2021. from 1997 to 1999, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; Fellow, Institution of Electrical Engineers; and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Centennial Medal, in 1980; Sir Harold Hartley Medal, Institute of Measurement and Control, in 1982; Institution of Electrical Engineers Achievement Medal, in 1992, and its Faraday Medal, in 1993 and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Oldenburger Medal, in 2004. In 1998 Professor MacFarlane was appointed an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland.

MacFarlane was invested with a knighthood in 2002, for services to education and science.