Robert Pendlebury's commendation video transcript

Professor Robert Pendlebury

STEPHEN SMITH: And now we come to our honorary award, these are awarded by the University in recognition of somebody who has made a very significant contribution in their particular field. And I now have great pleasure in inviting Ms Pigden to return to the lectern and give the commendation for the conferment of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University to Professor Robert Pendlebury.

LOUISE PIGDEN: It gives me great pleasure to be presenting today Professor Robert Pendlebury for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University.

Robert has held Senior Engineering positions at both Ford Motor Company and JC Bamford Excavators Limited, JCB, and played a key role in the establishment of the JCB Academy in Uttoxeter.

Robert is a mechanical engineering graduate of Leeds University and a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. His introduction to engineering was a student work placement at the Avaro Limited Aircraft plant in Chadderton which was then building the Vulcan Delta wing jet bomber.

Robert's early career was devoted to the design and development of Ford commercial vehicles including the Ford Transit and the Ford Cargo truck range. His final role there was Transit Vehicle Development Manager responsible for the whole range of vehicles built in several European locations. This was Ford's most successful vehicle in Europe for over 25 years.

Leaving Ford in 1991, Robert joined JCB as Research Director and eventually became their Engineering and Research Director responsible for all products. During his time there the company grew its business substantially worldwide with manufacturing in the UK, the USA and India.

Always interested in engines, Robert led the team that developed the JCB Diesel Max range of engines now built in both the UK and India. This was JCB's first in-house engine and powers the majority of JCB vehicles. The Diesel Max was also the basis for the power plant in the car that broke the land speed record, two Diesel Max engines bolted together, one driving the front wheels and the other the rear. On the 22nd of August 2006, the JCB Diesel Max car broke the official FIA diesel engine land speed record attaining a speed of 328.767 miles per hour. 24 hours later it broke its own record achieving a speed of 350.092 miles per hour over a distance of one mile.

In 2010, Robert played a significant role in the establishment of the JCB Academy in Uttoxeter where he is now Associate Engineering Director. The Academy specialises in business and engineering education and has proved enormously successful.

Although he retired from full-time employment with JCB in 2005, Robert remains a consultant to Lord Bamford and is an advisor to the Home Office and takes a great interest in education and encouraging young people to study engineering, giving talks in schools to children and sharing his passion for engineering. He also acts as a consultant at ITM Power in Sheffield exploring hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles.

Robert lives in Derby with his wife, Barbara who is here to support him today along with his sons, Richard and Robert and his four grandchildren.

Chancellor, in recognition of his achievements and exemplary career as an engineer and his impact on engineering education we are delighted to award Robert Pendlebury the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University.

PROFESSOR ROBERT PENDLEBURY: Chancellor, Pro-chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant, High Sheriff, Deputy Mayor of Derby, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen and graduands of 2020, I am deeply honoured.

You see me one month short of my 80th birthday, but when I took my first steps in engineering way back in the early 1960s I was the same age as many of you here today.

Engineering has given me a career for which I am profoundly grateful. As you have just heard it all began with a student placement at the factory which built the awe-inspiring Vulcan Aircraft. Later at the Ford Motor Company I led the development of the ubiquitous transit van, then I moved to the equally iconic firm of JCB.

Much has changed during that time but no more so than in the last 20 years. Even as a recent graduate in the last years of the British railway steam age I would never have imagined that within my working lifetime fossil fuels should or could be replaced entirely as the means of warmth, power, and propulsion. Now that replacement is imperative, and it is beholden on engineers as well as politicians and the public to make it happen.

I spent my later working life exploring the potential of hydrogen as a clean, environmentally-friendly, sustainable and effective fuel for the 21st century. Besides energy the only by product of hydrogen combustion is water. I'm proud to say I introduced JCB to the possibilities of hydrogen. Last month they invested £100 million into a new hydrogen engine project and £1bn into a deal sourcing green hydrogen.

I believe it is the future but now it's the responsibility of your generation to take up the baton and lead us into a better, cleaner world. I wish you every success in that endeavour and everything else that follows from your time at this young and dynamic University of Derby.

Thank you again for this great honour. Thank you.

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