Renishaw chief to receive honorary award from the University of Huddersfield

The chairman and chief executive of Renishaw, Sir David McMurtry, will collect an honorary award from University of Huddersfield, where he and his company have been heavily involved for many years.

Sir David is a visiting professor at Huddersfield and Renishaw are a key industrial partner in the University’s EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology and now he has the same role with its successor, the EPSRC-funded Future Metrology Hub, a £40 million research centre.

Sir David was employed at Rolls-Royce plc, Bristol, for 17 years, latterly holding the positions of Deputy Chief Designer and Assistant Chief of Engine Design for all Rolls-Royce engines manufactured at Filton, Bristol.

After inventing the original touch-trigger probe for co-ordinate measuring machines in 1972, Sir David co-founded Renishaw with John Deer in 1973, which today employs over 4,000 people in 35 countries, of which 2,800 are located in the UK.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the American Society of Manufacturing Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2011 became a Fellow of the Royal Society.  His knighthood was awarded “for services to Design and Innovation” and he was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 1989.  The Institute of Physics jointly awarded its 2012 Swan Medal to Sir David and John Deer for their role in founding Renishaw and leading it to become one of the world’s principal manufacturers of metrology equipment.

Whilst at Rolls-Royce, Sir David was named as inventor or co-inventor on 47 patents or patent applications, and over 150 at Renishaw.