Professor Duncan McFarlane has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in recognition of his contributions to industrial automation, digital manufacturing and the application of information technologies across manufacturing and supply chains.

Professor Duncan McFarlane is a pioneer of industrial digitalisation, addressing automation, integration and logistics challenges across manufacturing and service industries, as well as in public health. His innovations have been implemented in major companies including Boeing, Unilever, Foxconn and Siemens. His critical hospital and testing, operational and logistical systems, delivered during COVID, led to his receiving, among other honours, a Royal Academy of Engineering President’s Award.

Most recently, Duncan’s novel ‘shoestring’ technologies for the systematic deployment and application of low-cost digital solutions in SMEs, have been implemented more than 350 times, and were underpinned by a comprehensive educational and support infrastructure to help develop the next generation of industrial engineers.

The Academy’s 50^th anniversary

This year’s new Fellows, announced in the year of the Academy’s 50^th anniversary, are making an incredible impact across the engineering and technology sector with innovations in clean energy, AI, medicine and public health. These leading figures have influenced academia and business, worked to widen participation in engineering for people from underrepresented backgrounds, and provided expert policy advice to government. 

The 75 new Fellows, all leading figures in the field of engineering and technology, will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 19 October, when each Fellow will sign the roll book. In joining the Fellowship, they will lend their unique capabilities to achieving the Academy’s overarching strategic goal to engineer better lives.    

Duncan said: “I am really honoured to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and particularly excited to be joining the Fellowship during the Academy's 50th anniversary year. I am very grateful for the support I have received over many years from colleagues, staff and students in the Engineering Department and St John’s College in Cambridge and from collaborators both industrial and academic.  The Royal Academy of Engineering is an extraordinary community of engineers and innovators, and I am so very pleased to become part of the academy and its work in creating a better world.”

Sir John Lazar CBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:  “As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year, we also mark the Academy’s achievements since it was founded as the Fellowship of Engineering on 11 June 1976 at Buckingham Palace, with the enthusiastic backing of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, our Founding Senior Fellow. Our Fellowship has been at the core of our work for the past 50 years, connecting the businesses leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers and policymakers who are at the heart of the UK’s technological progress.

“This year’s cohort will be joining a community of over 1,700 top engineers and innovators in the UK and around the world. Together, we ensure that bright ideas are supported, scaled and shared, turning ambition into innovation and innovation into impact. We aim to strengthen education, skills and inclusion to inspire and equip the engineers of today and tomorrow.”

Find out more about the 2026 elected Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering