University of Manchester Faculty of Science and Engineering
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| University of Manchester Faculty of Science and Engineering | |
|---|---|
| Name | Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Established | 2004 (current structure) |
| Parent | University of Manchester |
| Dean | Martin Schröder |
| Academic staff | ~1,700 |
| Students | ~15,000 |
| Website | https://www.se.manchester.ac.uk/ |
University of Manchester Faculty of Science and Engineering is one of the largest and most prominent faculties of its kind in the United Kingdom, formed from the merger of the former Victoria University and UMIST in 2004. It encompasses a vast range of disciplines from fundamental physics and chemistry to advanced materials science and aerospace engineering, operating within the historic Manchester Engineering Campus Development. The faculty is integral to the university's Russell Group status and its global reputation for research intensity, having been the academic home to numerous Nobel Prize laureates including Ernest Rutherford and Andre Geim.
History
The faculty's origins are deeply intertwined with the city's legacy as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution and a global center for scientific inquiry. Its foundational institutions include Owens College, established in 1851, which later became the Victoria University of Manchester, and the Manchester Mechanics' Institute, founded in 1824, which evolved into UMIST. The Joule Physics Laboratory and the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society were pivotal early venues for groundbreaking work. The historic 2004 merger between the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST, creating the modern University of Manchester, formally established the current faculty, consolidating centuries of engineering and scientific tradition from the Manchester Ship Canal era to the Manchester Computing project.
Academic structure
The faculty is organized into several large schools, each housing numerous departments and research institutes. The core schools include the School of Engineering, which encompasses departments like Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, the School of Natural Sciences covering Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, and Earth and Environmental Sciences, and the School of Computer Science. Other key units are the Department of Materials and the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. It offers a comprehensive portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, from integrated Master of Engineering programs to doctoral studies coordinated with the Doctoral Academy.
Research and innovation
Research is characterized by its scale, interdisciplinary nature, and impact, with the faculty securing major funding from UK Research and Innovation, the European Research Council, and industrial partners like Siemens and Rolls-Royce. It hosts multiple EPSRC-funded Centres for Doctoral Training and is a lead partner in the Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials research. Landmark innovations include the isolation of graphene at the National Graphene Institute, pioneering work on the Manchester Baby computer, and major contributions to the Square Kilometre Array project. The Dalton Nuclear Institute and the Photon Science Institute represent other key strategic research beacons.
Notable faculty and alumni
The faculty boasts an extraordinary roster of individuals who have shaped modern science and technology. Nobel laureates associated with it include Ernest Rutherford (Nobel Prize in Chemistry), Niels Bohr, J. J. Thomson, and more recently Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for graphene. Other distinguished faculty have been Bernard Lovell, founder of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, and mathematician Alan Turing. Alumni of note range from Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to pioneering computer scientist Tom Kilburn, and Norman Foster of Foster + Partners.
Facilities and resources
The faculty operates from a concentrated, state-of-the-art urban campus centered around the £400 million Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD), one of the largest construction projects in UK higher education. Key facilities within this ecosystem include the National Graphene Institute, the Henry Royce Institute, the Dalton Cumbrian Facility, and the Manchester Energy Institute. Students and researchers have access to advanced resources such as the EMBL-EBI affiliated Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, high-performance computing via the CSAR service, and the extensive collections of the Manchester Museum.