John Horlock

Sir John Harold Horlock FRS FREng (19 April 1928 – 22 May 2015) was a British professor of mechanical engineering, and was vice-chancellor of both the Open University and the University of Salford, as well as vice-president of the Royal Society.

He went from there to St John's College, Cambridge where he gained his PhD in 1958.

In spite of a job offer by Rolls-Royce, Horlock accepted the role of professor and head of the mechanical engineering department at University of Liverpool.

He returned to Cambridge as professor of engineering in 1967, and in 1973 he founded the department's Whittle Laboratory, also becoming its director.

In 1977, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering

Horlock was raised in North London and attended The Latymer School, Edmonton.

In 1981, Horlock began working for the Open University.

Whilst there he tackled the government over spending cuts, introduced a taught postgraduate masters programme, and expanded the OU.

Following his retirement he was treasurer and later vice-president of the Royal Society.

Horlock's main area of research was turbomachinery, particularly gas turbines, compressors and jet engines.

Horlock won numerous awards including:

The Horlock building on the Open University's Walton Hall campus was named in his honour in 1989, and the Association of Open University Graduates' Sir John Horlock Award for Science was established two years later in 1991.