Prof Richard Penty, Head of School

The School of Technology has been headed by Professor Richard Penty since Michaelmas term 2023. Professor Penty formerly served as the Deputy Head of the School. He was Master of Sidney Sussex College from 2013 – 2023 and has been Professor of Photonics in the Engineering Department since 2002.    

Following his undergraduate degree in Engineering and Electrical Sciences Professor Penty completed his Masters and PhD at Cambridge, before taking up Lecturer posts at the University of Bath and the University of Bristol.    

Returning to Cambridge, Professor Penty was appointed Assistant Director of Research in the Engineering Department in 2001, and then a Fellow in Engineering at Sidney Sussex in 2002. His research interests include photonic integration, optical data communications and quantum communications. He is the author of over 900 journal and conference publications, and has presented on his research around the world. In 2021 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academic of Engineering.   

As Head of the School of Technology, Professor Penty oversees strategy, teaching, research, and fundraising activities within the School. As a senior member of the University he contributes to central decision making, and facilitates innovation and entrepreneurial decisions in the interests of the School of Technology.   

Prof Timothy Jones, Deputy Head of School (Research and Strategy) 

Professor Timothy Jones is currently Professor of Computer Architecture and Compilation at the Department of Computer Science and Technology. He is also a Fellow and Director of Studies for Computer Science at Gonville and Caius College.

His research focuses on extracting the many different forms of parallelism from applications to increase performance and address energy-efficiency and reliability challenges within compilers, binary translators and microarchitectures. Current strands of work consider novel ways of prefetching data into caches, contemporary schemes for extracting thread-level parallelism and advanced prediction within the core, amongst others.

He is the Director of the Computer Architecture and Semiconductor Design Centre (CASCADE). They are performing ground-breaking research that addresses some of the grand challenges in computer architecture, design automation and semiconductors.

As the Deputy Head of the School of Technology, Professor Jones will oversee the development and implementation of the School’s research strategy, aiming to create impetus, develop capacity and connect with major new challenges. Professor Jones will also represent the School on research matters at central University Committees, and contribute to the development of University policies on research matters.

Prof Geoff Parks, Deputy Head of School (Education)

Professor Geoff Parks has enjoyed a long career as a UTO in the Department of Engineering, during most of which he has also held substantial administrative roles. He was appointed a University Lecturer in 1996 and is now a Professor of Nuclear Engineering. He has to date supervised more than 40 PhD students and more than 100 MEng and MPhil projects. Geoff did a stint as Director of Undergraduate Education in the Engineering Department from 1999 to 2003, during which time Part II of the Engineering Tripos was ‘modularised’. He served as the Department’s Director of Undergraduate Admissions from 2002 to 2016, over which period he organised and led no fewer than 44 Easter and Summer Schools for prospective applicants. 

As a Fellow at Jesus College, Geoff directed studies in Engineering for 26 years, has served as an Admissions Tutor for 12 years and as Senior Tutor for 10 years. He also served as Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges from 2003 to 2012. 

As Deputy Head of School (Education), Geoff provides academic oversight of the education activities within the School. He is responsible for developing the long-term strategic vision of education within the School, supporting improvements in our education portfolio through course development and sharing of best practice and representing the School at central education Committees.  

Dr Shui Lam, Secretary of the School 

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Brief bio