Professor Patrick Dowling is an internationally renowned engineer, scholar and educationalist.

From 1994 - 2005 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey and on retiring from that role he took up the position of the Chair of the British Science Association. He steps down from that position at the end of the 2009 Festival, to be succeeded by Professor Julia Goodfellow. The British Science Association have greatly valued his insights and expertise and are delighted to be able to award him Honorary Fellowship of the Association in recognition of his leadership of Council over the past four years.