ICON was pleased to host a visit by the current Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Dr Datuk Rahim on 1 December 2016.  Datuk Ir (Dr) A Rahim Hj Hashim was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) in 2012. He graduated in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom and worked for PETRONAS for 32 years, including as Vice President Research and Technology. In October 2016 he was admitted as a William Pitt Fellow by the Pembroke College of Cambridge.

A professional engineer, he sat on the Board of Engineers Malaysia and was Chairman of the Engineering Accreditation Council of Malaysia. He is currently an Advisor of Institute of Materials Malaysia, a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and a member of the Board of Engineers National Monitoring Committee.

Following a welcome by Sir Christopher Snowden, Southampton’s Vice Chancellor, Dr Themis Prodromakis, ICON’s Project Director, accompanied Dr Rahim and his wife on a tour of the campus including Southampton’s state of the art cleanroom facilities.

Dr Rahim appreciated the “work that Southampton University is currently undertaking and the impressive facilities that you have on campus especially the Zepler Institute.” He went on to say that UTP would be “very keen to work with Southampton University on areas that complement both our strengths and at the time help build our expertise further. Our participation in the ICON initiative is one example.”

A small workshop is planned to develop some of the ideas discussed during the visit, with the aim of producing a programme and ongoing collaboration.