Professor Derek O. Northwood of the University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada, a distinguished engineering academic and engineering educator has a strong international reputation for his research, development and promotional activities. Prof. Northwood has had an association with the UICEE and now with the WIETE going back more than 12 years. During that time, he has played a pivotal role in the life and activities of the two organisations. His achievements have been widely recognised and he has received numerous international awards, including the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education Order for Excellence in Engineering Education and UICEE’s Silver Badge of Honour for Distinguished Contributions to Engineering Education. Recently, Prof. Northwood was elected a Fellow of the World Institute for Engineering and Technology Education.

In his citation, Dr Leo Groarke, Provost and Vice-President Academic at the University of Windsor pointed out, amongst other things, that ...During his time at Windsor, Dr Northwood has taught thousands of students in courses ranging from Introductory Engineering Materials to Advanced Crystallography. In the process, he has earned outstanding teaching evaluations from both graduate and undergraduate students. He has supervised or co‐supervised 27 Masters of Applied Science and 23 PhD students. In 2000, while serving as Dean at Ryerson University in Toronto, he was named a "Popular Prof" in Maclean's Guide to Canadian Universities.

He went on to say that ...Dr Northwood’s achievements in research and scholarly activities are renowned and recognised with a Research Leadership Chair in materials engineering. During the course of his career he has published 360 articles in refereed journals and over 280 papers in refereed conference proceedings. In April 2004, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council recognised him for "important research achievements that have contributed to the sum total of human knowledge and the advancement of the economic and social well‐being of Canadians over the 25 years of NSERC's existence".

We wish to congratulate Professor Northwood on this award and look forward to continuing our long and successful cooperation, and friendly association with him and his wife Marilyn.

The picture shows Professor D.O. Northwood receiving his award during the University Professor - Convocation.Dr Leo Groarke, Provost and Vice-President Academic reading the citation. The award was made at the 100th Convocation of the University of Windsor on Saturday, 19 October 2013.