Director of Education and member of the University Executive
Professor Jackie Akhavan FRSC, FIExpE was appointed Director of Education of Cranfield Defence and Security in August 2014. She is also the Head of the Centre for Defence Chemistry.
As Director of Education her responsibilities include learner experience and education quality for award-bearing and non award-bearing courses at Cranfield University at Shrivenham. She is also member of the CDS executive and an appointed member of Council.
Jackie graduated from Southampton University with a BSc(Hons), MPhil and PhD in chemistry. She joined Cranfield University as a lecturer in polymer chemistry and soon afterwards established her research group in polymer bonded explosives. During this time she was a visiting scientist to Akron University in the USA and was awarded a personal chair in explosives chemistry in 2007. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Chartered chemist, a Fellow of the Institute of Explosive Engineers and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Explosives Engineers Educational and Research Trust. She is also a member of the Expert Advisory Group for through life of explosives and is an invited member of the European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection academic committee.
