News - Lifetime Achievement Award
Convergence Office press release
Professor Keith Atkinson has won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Cornwall Works WISE awards.
The awards recognise excellence in employment and skills activity in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The Lifetime Achievement Award highlights one individual's outstanding contribution.
Professor Atkinson, Emeritus Professor, University of Exeter, who moved to Cornwall in 1969 when he began lecturing at the Camborne School of Mines, played a key role in the creation of the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC).
Other career highlights include helping to establish a university in the United Arab Emirates and being awarded a medal for a scientific paper.
Carleen Kelemen, Director of the Convergence Partnership Office for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: "Warmest congratulations to Professor Atkinson. He was a driving force behind the Combined Universities in Cornwall, which has become one of our major assets in economic regeneration. He is the Godfather of dreams and personal ambitions for generations to come."
After receiving the award Mr Atkinson said: "I accept this on behalf of a lot of people who over the years have worked hard to create the Combined Universities in Cornwall.
"If I had my time again I would try to do it better but I would not do it anywhere else but Cornwall. I hope that everyone now will do their utmost to put Cornwall where it should be - right at the top of the tree."
While at Camborne School of Mines (CSM) Professor Atkinson lectured in a range subjects and undertook research, publishing over 80 scientific and technical papers. In 1990 he was awarded the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy Gold Fields of South Africa Silver Medal for a scientific paper on the Reclamation of Land Contaminated by Mining. He has presented keynote addresses on innovative methods of reclaiming contaminated land at International conferences in the UK, the USA, Canada, South Africa, India and China.
In the late 1980s he became the Vice Principal of CSM and led the negotiations which resulted in its merger with the University of Exeter in 1993. He became Head of the School of Mines in 1994 and a Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Exeter in 1997 where he was responsible for restructuring and for helping establish the University's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.
In 2002 he became the first Cornwall Provost of the University of Exeter and was responsible for establishing their Cornwall Campus at Tremough - part of the Combined Universities in Cornwall project. He has been involved in the CUC since its inception and served on its Steering Committee until 2007, he is also a past Chair of its Executive Committee.
He is a Chartered Geologist and a Chartered Engineer having served on the Councils of Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and the Geological Society of London. A Past President of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, he was awarded their Bolitho Gold Medal for 'Services to Geology' in 1998.
In 1997 he began helping establish the University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and in 2000 he became the first non-Arab Trustee on the Governing Body of that University, a role he still retains today.