Professor Sir John McCanny

Honorary Doctorate of Engineering (Hon. DEng)

Graduation Ceremony: Tuesday 18 June 2019

Professor Sir John McCanny CBE FRS FREng is Regius Professor (Emeritus) of Electronics and Computer Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. He is an international authority on special purpose silicon architectures for Digital Signal and Video Processing and Cryptography, has published five research books, 360 research papers and holds over 20 patents.

Sir John was responsible for developing the vision that led to the creation of the Northern Ireland Science Park, now Catalyst Inc, and its research flagship, the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT). Sir John was ECIT Director from 2000 until 2017 and was, from 2009 until 2017, the academic Principal Investigator for the Centre of Secure Information Technology (CSIT) the UK’s Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Cybersecurity. In 2002, the Science Park was a “brownfield site” and today, over 200 high technology companies are located there, employing over 3,000 people. Sir John successfully co-founded two high technology companies based on his research activities, APT Ltd, later acquired by Qualcomm, and Amphion Semiconductor, later acquired by Conexant. Sir John is a non-executive Director of Titan IC Systems Ltd.

Sir John is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Irish Academy of Engineering and the IEEE. Sir John is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy and his many awards include the IET’s Faraday medal, the Royal Irish Academy’s Cunningham medal, the Irish Times/Royal Dublin Society Boyle medal, the Irish Academy of Engineering Parson’s medal and an IEEE Millennium medal. Sir John received a CBE in 2002 and a Knighthood in 2017 for services to Higher Education and Economic development.

Read the full laureation for Professor Sir John McCanny.