Principal of Strathclyde University , Chairman of the Institute for Energy and Environment; Professor Jim McDonald spent 7 years within the UK Electricity Supply Industry.
He joined Strathclyde University in 1984 ultimately being appointed as the Rolls-Royce Professor of Electrical Power Systems in 1993. He advises government, industry and commerce on power networks, distributed generation and new/renewable energy through DBERR and other board advisory positions in the UK and USA. He has co-authored over 600 journal/conference papers and 3 books. He is Chairman of the Institute for Energy and Environment, the largest power engineering and energy systems research group internationally. He was appointed Deputy Principal at Strathclyde in 2006 focussing on research enhancement and commercialisation. In August 2009 he was appointed as Chairman of the Scotland Research Partnership in Engineering (GRPE), part of a major research pooling investment across Scotland by Scottish Funding Council and Higher Education Institutions. He is a member of the Scottish Enterprise Board, Scottish Science Advisory Council and has recently become a member of the UK Trade and Investment Energy Excellence Board. He Chairs the Scottish Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) that involves the energy research intensive Scottish universities. The ETP is well engaged with government and industry and is developing a large portfolio of energy research programmes. He co-chairs (with the First Minister) the Energy Advisory Board in Scotland. He became Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde in March 2009.
