Jim McDonald (electrical engineer)
Sir James McDonald is a British engineer and educator, serving as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde since 2009. He is the current President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and is also a visiting professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
After seven years of work within the UK Electricity Supply Industry, McDonald joined Strathclyde University in 1984 and became Professor of Electrical Power Systems in 1993. In 2001 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Electric Propulsion in Marine Applications: An Electrical Engineer's Viewpoint". In 2006 he was appointed Deputy Principal responsible for Research.
McDonald is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and of the Institute of Physics. He has co-authored over 600 papers and three books. He was knighted in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to education, engineering and the economy.
On 15 February 2019 the Royal Academy of Engineering announced that its Trustee Board had nominated Professor McDonald as its Presidential candidate for election by Fellows at the September 2019 AGM. Following his election, Sir Jim will serve a term of five years and has become the Academy’s first Scottish President.
