Professor Rachel Thomson

BA, MA, PhD, FIMMM, FREng

  • Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost

Rachel Thomson is Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost of Loughborough University and Professor of Materials Engineering. Rachel moved to Loughborough University in 1995 having gained her degrees at Cambridge University.

Professor Thomson read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, which she then followed with a PhD and Research Fellowship in Materials Engineering at Cambridge.

Professor Thomson joined Loughborough University in 1995 as a Lecturer in Materials, and since then has been Head of that Department and Dean of the School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering, before becoming Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience).

Professor Thomson is also committed to engineering education, from the conception and implementation of engineering degree programmes, through to successfully supervising over 40 doctoral research students to completion.

She has initiated many transformational projects of benefit to students, including leading the development of STEMLab which opened in 2017, a £17M investment in shared science and engineering teaching laboratories, Loughborough’s Digital Strategy for Teaching and Learning, and a skills development programme for students, Personal Best.