Dubliner at helm of the BA

The British Association for the Advancement of Science is a venerable institution founded almost 175 years ago with a mission to help people understand science. Now as the BA enters a time of change, an Irishman is in charge.

Dubliner Patrick Dowling took over as chairman of the council of the BA just last Thursday, as the organisation's annual Festival of Science, held this year in Trinity College, drew to a close. The festival hasn't been in Dublin since 1957, but Dowling attended both that festival and the 2005 event, albeit in very different circumstances.

"I attended the last BA festival here in 1957. I totally enjoyed myself," he told Science Today last week. He attended a lecture by famous Irish mathematician John Lighton Synge and visited Dunsink Observatory.

"I found it tremendously exciting and great fun. I was really inspired by that experience," he says.

That was when Dowling, originally from Sandymount, was an undergraduate at UCD. Quite a bit has happened for him since then. He told his family he was spending a year in Britain on a scholarship, but Dowling stayed and thrived.

A structural engineer with a world reputation, he spent 30 years with Imperial College London and another 11 at the University of Surrey, both as vice-chancellor and chief executive. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and was the youngest elected member of the Royal Academy of Engineers. He was given a CBE in 2001, has chaired engineering bodies and expert groups, and has racked up a number of honorary degrees.

For the next five years, he assumes the chair of the BA council, where he wants to support its mission "to excite people young and old about the importance of science and engineering". He does so, however, even as the public, and students in particular, seem to be turning their faces against science.

"The thing that really worries me is the decline in the applications to engineering and science," he says. "Something is changing and it is very dangerous. Science has to be seen as central to the culture of a country."

Science is culture in the same way as the arts and humanities, and "has to be seen as something for everybody. People have to understand that the future of this country and the very quality of their lives depend on the scientific research underpinning it".

Dowling arrives as the BA is considering how it might restructure itself for the coming years. The council he chairs will discuss change in concert with BA chief executive Sir Roland Jackson.

Dowling cites finances and credibility as two issues that must be addressed.

"I want to get it on to a more sustainable financial position," he says. He hopes to apply ideas learned at Surrey, where he pushed the idea of "academic excellence, financial robustness".

He acknowledges that there is a "credibility issue" with the UK government. "I have to convince them they have to pay for it", given the contributions made by the BA to society and attracting students to the sciences. "I also want more of a focus on what we do. I would like to re-establish its credentials with the general public."