Professor Sir John O’Reilly has been Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University since December 2006, having previously been Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

He graduated from Brunel University with first class honours in Electrical Engineering, later obtaining a PhD from the University of Essex. He was awarded a DSc by Brunel in 1991.

Professor O’Reilly began his career at the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern. He has held posts as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex, was Professor of Electronic Engineering and Head of the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Systems in the University of Wales, Bangor, was Chair of Telecommunications at University College London, where he served also as Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

His industrial experience includes appointments with Ultra Electronics Ltd, with the Post Office Research Centre and a period as a Principal Research Fellow with BT. In the SME sector he has served as Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of IDB Ltd and non-executive Chairman on CAST Ltd.

From 2001, prior to joining Cranfield, Professor O’Reilly was Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), leading various strategic developments in research, teaching and knowledge transfer.

Professor O’Reilly’s personal research has been in the area of Information and Communication Technologies, with an emphasis on communication networks and applications. Widely published, with some 400 journal and conference papers and three books, he was awarded the J J Thompson Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) for ‘distinguished contributions to electrical engineering’. He has served as a specialist advisor to UK Government and the European Commission, and currently chairs the UK’s Network Interoperability Consultative Committee (NICC) for Ofcom and the telecommunications industry.

In 2004-05 Professor O’Reilly was the President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (now the Institution of Energy and Technology (IET)) and is also a former president of EUREL, the Confederation of European Professional Electrical Societies. A fellow and former member of the Council of the Royal Academy of Engineering, he is also a Foreign member of Academie Hassan II des Sciences et Techniques and of Academia das Ciências de Lisboa.

In the 2007 New Year Honours list Professor O’Reilly was awarded a knighthood for contributions to science.