Clare Rose

Distinguished Professor of Image Engineering Nigel Allinson has joined the list of people being recognized in the Queen’s Birthday Honours on Saturday, June 16.

Professor Allinson, whose research in image engineering is contributing to major advances in police crime scene investigation and medicine, will receive the MBE for services to engineering.

He said: “I am proud and thrilled to receive this honour, but it is of course very much in recognition of all the team here at Lincoln and those I’ve worked with during my 30-year academic career.”

Professor Allison is the inventor of the world’s largest silicon imager and leads a team of image engineers at the University of Lincoln. He is also a Visiting Chair of Materials at the University of Oxford.

The internationally-renowned academic has led a number of high-profile forensic science projects within the criminal justice system and homeland security.

Allinson used computer imaging to identify criminals by their shoeprints, and by speeding up the transmission of fingerprint information he helped reduce the time to achieve an identification from days to minutes.

This technology is currently in use with three-quarters of UK police forces.

In 2006 Professor Nigel Allinson was rated as the Times Higher Education’s top academic entrepreneur.

The University of Lincoln Professor can now add the MBE title to his long list of achievements.

Top young orators from schools across the nation are to battle it out in a public speaking competition in Lincoln on Friday, June 22.

Among the panel of judges will be Lincoln actor Colin McFarlane.

Alongside actor Colin McFarlane, the judging panel will consist of Bill Ramsay from the English Speaking Union and Dr Jacqui Briggs from the University of Lincoln.

Hosted by the University of Lincoln and the English Speaking Union, the competition will see 18 Year 12 students aged 16 and 17 gather in the city to demonstrate their verbal virtuosity.

Students will be travelling from as far as Dagenham for the event.

Six teams of three, comprising of a chairperson, speaker and questioner, will seek to impress the audience and judges by presenting on a wide range of topics, which are kept secret until the actual competition day.

Aggi Gunstone, the University of Lincoln’s Schools and Colleges Liaison Manager, said: “This exciting competition will continue the English Speaking Union’s highly respected ethos of providing a forum for the promotion of effective spoken English.”

She added: “We are delighted to welcome such exceptional public speakers as Colin McFarlane, Bill Ramsay and Dr Jacqui Briggs onto the judging panel as they all have wide professional experience of the skills needed to be a successful orator, but in very different professions.”

The winning team will secure a tour of the Houses of Parliament and the House of Lords, alongside tea with MP Karl McCartney and the Chancellor of the University of Lincoln, Lord Victor Adebowale.