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All-change for SUT Elected Officers + News of SUT Award Winners

This week’s AGM of the Society for Underwater Technology marked the official hand over to new elected officers in all senior posts – President, Chair, Hon Secretary and Hon Treasurer; the announcement of three new Fellows of the Learned Society; and of winners of three Awards, The President’s Award, the Lennard-Senior Award; and the Gwyn Griffiths Award for Underwater Robotics. Once all the formalities were concluded SUT members were treated to a fascinating talk on ‘eDNA: The future of ocean biodiversity monitoring’ by Dr Katie Cruickshanks of NatureMetrics.

The new officers

(L-R) Iain Knight, Sue John, Moya Crawford, Nigel Carey

SUT’s Cheryl Burgess explained:

“By coincidence our Chair, David Saul; our Hon Secretary, Dave Brookes; and our Hon Treasurer Mick Cook had all reached the end of their permitted terms of office at the same time; and our President Judith Patten MBE has also stepped down after her year in office. We thank them all for their sterling service during unprecedented times. Both David Saul and Judith Patten will remain on SUT’s Council

“Moya Crawford is our new President; Sue John our first female Chair; Iain Knight takes on the role of Hon Secretary and Nigel Carey becomes Hon Treasurer – what a team!”

New Fellows of the SUT

Three new SUT Fellows have been elected:

  • Simon Hems for services to the London and South of England Branch
  • Steve Duffield for services to the Perth (Australia) Branch and SUT’s International Committee
  • Rex Hubbard for services to the Perth Branch

Awards

Judith Patten MBE presents the SUT 2021 President’s Award to John Howes

The President’s Award 2021 was presented to John Howes, publisher and editor of UT2, and UV2 at an auspicious time. UT2 has recently reached a major milestone – 75 issues have been published since 2006. As the citation states:

“The President’s Award is made to John Howes, a great friend of the Society, the respected journalist, publisher and expert in the field of underwater technology in recognition of the years of service he has performed with, and for the SUT, its members and the wider industry.”

UT2 was one of the first magazines in the world to be produced for online publication and: “is not only a ‘go-to’ publication for its content, but visually is in a class of its own”. UV2 focuses on underwater vehicles and increasingly has video embedded which can also be found on the Subsea Video YouTube channel. John Howes also publishes old underwater-related photos on LinkedIn a service that has attracted over 17,000 followers and a host of comments which may in time lead to history qualification looking at ‘Subsea 1960 to the present’.

Dr Katie Cruickshanks talks ‘eDNA: The future of ocean biodiversity monitoring’.

The Lennard-Senior Memorial Prize is awarded annually in memory of two of the original members of SUT’s Marine Renewable Energies Committee (MREC) – Don Lennard and Gordon Senior. This year’s winner (nominated by and voted for by members of MREC) is Neil Kermode, Managing Director of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.

Neil won the inaugural award ten years ago in 2011 and “still – perhaps more than ever- deserves this accolade today… EMEC has marine renewables at its core and has extended its reach, to great effect, to encompass hydrogen and energy systems….. Neil is a true champion of enabling the marine energy sector”. His Award will be officially presented at All-Energy 2022 in Glasgow in May 2022.

Attendees at the AGM were also made aware of the winner of the inaugural Gwyn Griffiths Award for Underwater Robotics – Aleksandra Tomaszek, co-founder of 1CSI Ltd (see press release issued 8 November https://tinyurl.com/42y5t8wb)

Full information on the SUT is available at www.sut.org. The Learned Society has both individual, corporate and student members. SUT Individual membership is £76 per year. To join visit www.sut.org/sut-membership/application-for-membership/ or e-mail [email protected].