40-710: Julia Elizabeth King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge (born 11 July 1954) is a British engineer and a crossbench member of the House of Lords , where she chairs the Select Committee on Science and Technology . She is the incumbent chair of the Carbon Trust and the Henry Royce Institute , and was the vice-chancellor of Aston University from 2006 to 2016. King was born in London on 11 July 1954. She
80-733: A chamber with the Liberal / National Coalition having 30 seats, the Australian Labor Party with 26 seats, the Greens with 9 seats, One Nation with 4 seats and the Nick Xenophon Team with 3 seats. The other 4 seats were each won by Derryn Hinch , the Liberal Democratic Party , Family First , and Jacqui Lambie . The number of crossbenchers increased by two to a record 20 (all but the ones of
120-664: A collective position on issues, and so have no whips ; however, they do elect from among themselves a convenor for administrative purposes, and to keep them up to date with the business of the House. The current convenor is The Earl of Kinnoull , who took the office in April 2023. While convenors are not part of the " usual channels " (i.e. the party whips who decide the business of the House), they have been included in their discussions in recent years. The following have served as Convenor of
160-525: A consultant in the North-West of England, advising on metallurgy in submarine construction. Her 100th birthday in 1994 was celebrated by Newnham College with the planting of the Tipper Tree, a sweet chestnut . Tipper specialised in the investigation of metal strength and its effect on engineering problems. Her research with G. I. Taylor on distortion of aluminium crystals under tension received
200-614: A political party, and the Liberal Caucus in the Senate was dissolved in 2019. Constance Tipper Constance Tipper (born Constance Fligg Elam ; 16 February 1894 – 14 December 1995) was an English metallurgist and crystallographer . She investigated brittle fracture and the ductile-brittle transition of metals used in the construction of warships, and was the first female full-time faculty member at Cambridge University Department of Engineering . Constance Fligg Elam
240-662: A whipping system. In December 2016, the Senate began to officially recognise the ISG and provide it with funding. Two additional groups were established in 2019: the Canadian Senators Group (which primarily focuses on regional issues) and the Progressive Senate Group (formed by members of the defunct Senate Liberal Caucus ). The Canadian Senate in 2022 generally aspires towards non-partisanship. Non-affiliated members outnumber members affiliated with
280-900: Is a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths Company , an Honorary Graduate of Queen Mary, University of London , the University of Manchester , the University of Exeter and an Honorary Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge , Cardiff University and of the Institutions of Engineering and Technology, the Society for the Environment and the British Science Association. In 2006 she presented the Higginson Lecture . On 5 May 2010, she discussed
320-868: Is a member of the Committee on Climate Change , the Airports Commission , is the UK's Low Carbon Business Ambassador and was previously a non-executive Director of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills . She was an inaugural member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and is a former member of the World Economic Forum Automotive Council. She
360-789: The Royal School of Mines , where in 1917 she was appointed research assistant to Sir Harold Carpenter and, in 1921, elected to the Frecheville Research Fellowship. Also in 1917 she was elected a member of the Institute of Materials . It was subsequently arranged that she should work at the Cavendish Laboratory , Cambridge. In 1923, under the name C. F. Elam she received the Royal Society 's Bakerian Medal with G. I. Taylor . Unfortunately,
400-472: The " official opposition ". Unlike the United Kingdom, the term is used by both the lower and upper houses of each parliament (where applicable), who sit on the crossbenches between the government and opposition benches. The last few federal elections have seen an increase in the size and power of the crossbench in both houses of Parliament. The Australian Parliament as elected at the 2010 election
440-576: The 1923 Royal Society Bakerian Medal , although Tipper was prevented from attending the celebratory dinner due to being a woman. This research later inspired Taylor's explanation of plastic deformation by dislocations . During World War II she investigated the causes of brittle fracture in Liberty Ships . These ships were built in the US between 1941 and 1945, and were the first all- welded pre-fabricated cargo ships . Tipper established that
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#1732802475666480-503: The Coalition on confidence and supply. The resulting 76–74 margin entitled Labor to form a minority government . The Australian Senate, which uses the single transferable vote form of proportional representation to elect its 76-seat chamber, frequently has enough Senators on the crossbench that the governing party has to negotiate with it to get legislation passed. The 2 July 2016 double dissolution election , for example resulted in
520-552: The Crossbenchers: In the federal Parliament of Australia as well as the parliaments of the Australian states and territories , the term crossbencher refers to any and all minor party and independent members of the parliaments. More precisely, a crossbencher is any member who is not part of the governing party or parties, nor the party or parties forming what is known in some other Commonwealth countries as
560-629: The Greens, sit on the same side of the crossbench as the Labor benches. This tends not to be the case in the House of Representatives, both due to the different electoral system, which means fewer crossbenchers are elected, and the fact that the official government and opposition frontbenches extend across the inner rim of the entire hemicycle. In the New Zealand House of Representatives , MPs from parties that are not openly aligned with either
600-804: The Grunfeld, John Collier, Lunar Society, Constance Tipper , Bengough and Kelvin medals as well as the Erna Hamburger Prize and the 2012 President's Prize of the Engineering Professors' Council. In 1997 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to materials engineering in the 1999 Birthday Honours . She
640-543: The House of Lords (such as Baroness Hayman and Baroness D'Souza ), who by convention are not aligned with any party, also sit as crossbenchers. There are also some non-affiliated members of the House of Lords who are not part of the crossbencher group; this includes some officers, such as the Lord Speaker, and others who are associated with a party but have had the whip withdrawn. Although non-affiliated members, and members of small parties, sometimes physically sit on
680-713: The LPA/NPA coalition and the ALP: 9+4+3+4). The Liberal/National Coalition government required at least nine additional votes to reach a Senate majority. Generally speaking, Senators broadly aligned with the Coalition (such as those affiliated with the Australian Conservatives , One Nation, the Liberal Democratic Party, and Derryn Hinch) sit on the same side of the crossbench as the Coalition benches, while those more aligned with Labor, such as
720-710: The Royal Society had not realized that she was a woman and their dinner club did not allow women attendees. In 1924 she was appointed to the first Research Fellowship in Metallurgy given by the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Braziers . In 1927, Elam attended the Second (Triennial) Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress, held in Montreal , Canada, between 22 August and 28 September. She wrote of
760-537: The challenges and opportunities that surround low-carbon transport when she delivered the Institution of Chemical Engineers 6th John Collier memorial lecture. She is the UK government's low carbon business ambassador. She has been named as an Inspiring Woman Engineer by the Royal Academy of Engineering She was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and technology. In 2023 she
800-832: The congress and her impressions of her two months travelling in Canada and America for The Woman Engineer journal, published by the British Women's Engineering Society , of which she was a member. In 1928, Elam married George Tipper, a graduate of Clare College, Cambridge, and the superintendent of the Geological Survey in India. When she left the Royal School of Mines in 1929, with a DSc, she settled in Cambridge and continued her work there for over 30 years. Tipper
840-654: The crossbenches, their seats being on the Government side of the Lords Chamber. Parties supporting a minority government in a confidence and supply agreement in the House of Commons, such as the Democratic Unionist Party in the 2017–2019 Parliament, are not considered crossbenchers. Instead, along with all other non-governing parties, they are considered part of the opposition and sit on the opposition benches. The crossbenchers do not take
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#1732802475666880-519: The crossbenches, they are not members of the crossbench parliamentary group . An "increasing number" of crossbenchers have been created peers for non-political reasons. Since its establishment in May 2000, the House of Lords Appointments Commission has nominated a total of 67 non-party-political life peers who joined the House of Lords as crossbenchers. As of 28 November 2024 , there are 184 crossbenchers, making up approximately 23 percent of
920-540: The first Royal Academy of Engineering senior research fellow. She then returned to Cambridge, holding a series of research and teaching positions from 1987 to 1994. In 1994 she moved to Rolls-Royce , where she held a number of senior positions, including head of materials, managing director of fan systems and engineering director of the marine business. She was appointed chief executive of the Institute of Physics in September 2002. From September 2004 to December 2006 she
960-524: The fractures were not caused by welding, but were due to the properties of the steel itself. She demonstrated that there is a critical temperature below which the fracture mode in steel changes from ductile to brittle . Because ships in the North Atlantic were subjected to low temperatures, they were susceptible to brittle failure . While these fatigue cracks would not propagate beyond the edges of riveted steel plates, they were able to spread across
1000-621: The government and opposition benches, where crossbenchers sit in the chamber. Crossbench members of the British House of Lords are not aligned to any particular party. Until 2009, these included the Law Lords appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 . In addition, former Speakers of the House of Commons (such as Lord Martin of Springburn and Baroness Boothroyd ) and former Lord Speakers of
1040-496: The government or the official opposition (such as those belonging to New Zealand First from 2011 to 2017) are sometimes referred to as crossbenchers, but those who support the government in confidence and supply agreements are regarded as part of the government and sit on the government benches, and often receive official roles as ministers outside the cabinet or as parliamentary under-secretaries. From 2008 to 2017, ACT New Zealand , Te Pāti Māori and United Future MPs supported
1080-575: The largest of these designated the official opposition (and their leader is designated Leader of the Opposition ). Opposition parties other than the official opposition are typically called third parties. Third parties that hold a certain threshold of seats are granted official party status . In 2022 the "official opposition" is the Conservatives; the bloc Québecois, the NDP, and the Greens are
1120-401: The minority National Party government. As such, these MPs were not considered to be crossbenchers or part of the opposition, as they were represented within the government. The term "crossbencher" is generally not used for the federal Parliament of Canada or any of the provincial or territorial legislatures . Instead, any party that is not the governing party is an "opposition party", with
1160-597: The opposition. Beginning in 2016, multiple non-partisan caucuses which fulfill a similar purpose as crossbenchers were formed in the Senate of Canada . The first, the Independent Senators Group (ISG), was created partly as a response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 's decision to appoint more non-partisan Senators. Similar to crossbenchers in the UK, the ISG chooses its own leader and does not use
1200-627: The sitting members in the House of Lords. The Crossbench is typically the third-largest peerage group after the Conservative and Labour benches. From April 2007 to 2009, the number of crossbenchers was higher than the number of Conservative peers for the first time. Although the Lords Spiritual (archbishops and senior bishops of the Church of England ) also have no party affiliation, they are not considered crossbenchers and do not sit on
1240-455: The welded joints in the Liberty ships. She developed what is now known as the "Tipper Test" to help ensure that the metal used in ship construction was sufficiently sound. She was the first person to use a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine metallic fracture faces. She used a scanning electron microscope built by Charles Oatley and his team, the second SEM ever built. Dr Tipper
Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-802: Was a board member of the Engineering and Technology Board (now EngineeringUK ) from 2004 to 2008 and led a Royal Academy of Engineering Working Party on "Educating Engineers for the 21st Century" which published its final report in June 2007. King has advised the Ministry of Defence as Chair of the Defence Science Advisory Council and the Cabinet Office as a member of the National Security Forum. She
1320-606: Was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme The Life Scientific . King is married to Colin William Brown, Chief Executive Officer at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers . Crossbench A crossbencher is a minor party or independent member of some legislatures , such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia . They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to
1360-767: Was also a non-executive member of the Technology Strategy Board for five years. She was a non-executive Director of Angel Trains and is a non-executive director of the Green Investment Bank . She was a member of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership , the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council , and the Board of Universities UK , chairing its Innovation and Growth Policy Network. King
1400-441: Was appointed as a lecturer in the department of engineering from 1939, as one of the first women lecturers in the university at a time when many male lecturers went off to wartime work. In 1949 Tipper was appointed as a reader at Cambridge University , becoming the only full-time woman member of the faculty of engineering. She remained at Cambridge until her retirement in 1960. Following her retirement, Tipper continued to work as
1440-519: Was appointed by Gordon Brown , the then Chancellor of the Exchequer , in March 2007 to lead the King Review to examine the vehicle and fuel technologies that, over the next 25 years, could help to reduce carbon emissions from road transport. The interim analytical report was published in October 2007, and the final recommendations in March 2008. She has published over 160 papers on fatigue and fracture in structural materials and developments in aerospace and marine propulsion technology, and has been awarded
1480-421: Was born in New Barnet , Hertfordshire, the daughter of surgeon William Henry Elam, and Lydia Coombes. She was educated at Saint Felix School , Southwold before studying engineering at Newnham College, Cambridge (1912). Tipper achieved a third class in Part I of the Natural Science Tripos . In 1915 she joined the Metallurgical Department of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, but moved in 1916 to
1520-415: Was educated at Godolphin and Latymer Girls' School and New Hall, Cambridge , and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a first degree in Natural Sciences in 1975, followed by a PhD in fracture mechanics in 1978. King continued at Cambridge as a Rolls-Royce research fellow for 2 years before taking a post as a lecturer at the University of Nottingham from 1980 to 1987. In 1987 she became
1560-410: Was principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College London , after which she joined Aston University as vice-chancellor, where she served until September 2016, when she was succeeded by Alec Cameron . King was appointed as chair of STEM Learning Ltd in September 2016. King has held a number of senior public appointments and works closely with Government on education and technology issues. She
1600-504: Was the first hung parliament in the House of Representatives since the election of 1940 , with the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition winning 72 seats each of 150 total. Six crossbenchers held the balance of power : Greens MP Adam Bandt and Independent MP Andrew Wilkie , Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply , Independent MP Bob Katter and National Party of Western Australia MP Tony Crook declared their support for
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