Haroon Ahmed

doctoral_advisor = Charles Oatley thesis_title = Studies on high-current-density thermionic cathodes thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.595392 thesis_year = 1963 education = known_for = awards = website =

Haroon Ahmed (2 March 1936 – 23 October 2024) was a British-Pakistani scientist who specialised in the fields of microelectronics and electrical engineering. He was Emeritus Professor of Microelectronics at the Cavendish Laboratory, the Physics Department of the University of Cambridge, Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Early life and education Ahmed was born on 2 March 1936 in Calcutta (then part of British India). His family later emigrated to England in 1954 and settled in London. and his Doctor of Science degrees in 1996 from the University of Cambridge.

He established a number of major collaborations between industry and the University including the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory in the Microelectronics Research Centre. He is the author with P.J. Spreadbury of Electronics for Engineers (CUP 1973) and An Introduction to Physical Electronics with A.H.W. Beck (Elsevier, 1968, out of print). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1990.

He served as a Syndic of Cambridge University Press, as Non-Executive Director of the Addenbrooke's Hospital NHS Trust, as President of the Philosophical Society, as a member of the MacRobert Committee which awards a prize annually to the most innovative engineering company in the UK and was a member of the Development Board of Imperial College. He also worked as a consultant to several major electronics industrial companies. He was elected a Fellow of Corpus Christi College in 1967, became Warden of Leckhampton House (the College's Graduate Campus) in 1993 and Master in 2000, succeeding Professor Sir Tony Wrigley and resigned in 2006 to advise the Government of Pakistan on Higher Education matters.

He was the College's 48th Master since its foundation in 1352. In his time as Master the College celebrated its 650th anniversary, the Taylor Library project was implemented, the Conservation Centre for manuscripts was built and the project on the digital imaging of the College's Parker collection was started.

Personal life and death Among his other interests were golf and cricket.

Ahmed died in Cambridge on 23 October 2024, at the age of 88.