At the invitation of Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Prof. Helen Atkinson, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, President of the UK Engineering Professors’Council, University of Leicester, UK, visited IMR on Sept.22-Sept.24, 2011, as a recipient of 2011 Lee Hsun Lecture Award. Prof. Yiyi Li, had a meeting with Prof. Helen Atkinson, and presented the plaque of Lee Hsun Lecture Award to Prof. Helen Atkinson. Prof. Helen Atkinson delivered a lecture entitled as “Cornflour, Ketchup and Parts for Cars: A Review of Semi-Solid Processing”, and toured Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science (SYNL).

Professor Atkinson is currently President of the UK Engineering Professors’ Council, the body which represents engineering in higher education throughout the UK. She serves on the Council for the Royal Academy of Engineering and on the Skills and Training Panel for EngineeringUK (the national body for professional engineering). She previously served on the Foresight Materials Panel which reported to the UK Government on priorities for materials funding.

In 2007, Professor Atkinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest honour for an engineer in the UK. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Liege in Belgium in 2010 (Drhc) in recognition of her international standing as a metallurgist and was also recognised with a national award as a ‘Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology’ for ‘leadership and inspiration to others’. She is a Visiting Professor at Arts et Métier ParisTech, one of the most highly regarded French universities for science and technology.