Dr Tim Minshall is the Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the Department of Engineering at University of Cambridge, and Head of Institute for Manufacturing. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness (ITEC) at Doshisha University, and a member of the IET’s Innovation and Emerging Technologies Policy Panel. He is a member of advisory/steering committees for groups including ideaSpace Enterprise Accelerator, Cambridge University Entrepreneurs, Cambridge i-Teams and 100% Open.
Tim is a recipient of a University of Cambridge Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence and a Royal Academy of Engineering/ExxonMobil Excellence in Teaching Award.
Tim has worked as a teacher, consultant, plant engineer and freelance writer in the UK, Australia and Japan, and has B.Eng. from Aston University and a PhD from Cambridge University Engineering Department.
Before joining the Centre in 2002, Tim was a Project Manager and Board Member at St John’s Innovation Centre Ltd where he worked on a series of projects to support industry/academic collaboration focused around new technology ventures.
Two of his main projects were support for the setting up and early management of the University of Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre (now Cambridge Enterprise and the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning) and the management of the ‘Developing Entrepreneurs’ project. This project led to the formation of the ‘Enterprise Link’ networking group for new technology ventures, the production of the ‘Cambridge Technopole Report’, the formation of the Cambridge Technopole Group, and the publication of the ‘Funding Technology’ report series. Tim has remained as a member of the Board of St John’s Innovation Centre.
He is actively involved in outreach activities to raise awareness of engineering among primary and secondary schoolchildren. Resources relating to this topic can be found at the What Engineers Do blog (whatengineersdo.info)