Friday, 18 September 2009
A world-leader in green, large-scale conversion of wave energy to electricity, Dr George W. Taylor, was last night awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters at The University of Western Australia.
Dr Taylor, who graduated from UWA with a B.E degree with First Class Honours in Electrical Engineering in 1957, was founder and editor-in-chief of the international journal Ferroelectrics, now in its 40th year and 380th volume.
He was also a pioneer in the development and use of liquid crystal displays. In 1970, he co-founded Princeton Materials Sciences Inc, where he designed one of the first LCD digital watches. Five years later, the company was sold to Fairchild Semiconductor, the forerunner of Intel.
Dr Taylor's wave technology involves large floating buoys anchored to the sea-bed to capture wave energy. It has been trialled off the New Jersey coast in the US since 1997.
He was guest speaker at the final of four spring graduation ceremonies - for the Faculties of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics; Law; and Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.
This spring 1,374 graduands received bachelor degrees, diplomas, Masters and higher degrees in four ceremonies in Winthrop Hall. They included 99 being awarded PhDs.
The first cohort of the new Master of Infectious Diseases also graduated. The course has already attracted more than 50 students from around the world to train under Professor Geoff Shellam in the Marshall Centre for Infectious Diseases.
Media references
Sally-Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 7975 / (+61 4) 20 790 098
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