Lord Alec Broers

Lord Broers began his career at Cambridge in King's College chapel where he sang his way into a choral scholarship at Gonville and Caius in 1960. He had already taken a first degree in Physics at Melbourne University in Australia, followed by a further year of studying electronics. He was a semi professional singer and was making a good business from constructing and selling hi-fis "at a time when people hardly knew what a hi-fi was".

Broers subsequently became Master of Churchill College, Cambridge (1990–96) and Head of the Cambridge University Engineering Department (1993–96). He was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, 1996–2003. He was knighted in 1998 and created a life peer in 2004, as Baron Broers, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridgeshire. Lord Broers was Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Lords from 2004 to 2007 and was President of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2001 to 2006.

In September 2008, Lord Broers took over as Chairman of the Board od Directors at the Diamond Light Source, the UK’s largest new scientific facility for 45 years.

Lord Broers has received more than twenty honorary degrees and fellowships from universities, colleges, and academic and professional institutions. He is a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and the American Philosophical Society.