Peter Cawley received BSc and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of Bristol. He worked in industry from 1979-1981 and then joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at Imperial College, London. He served as head of department for 7 years to October 2019 and now has a part time role as Engineering Associate Dean for Enterprise, encouraging technology transfer activity across the faculty. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Royal Society.


In addition to his role as Chairman of Cognition Energy, Peter is a director of Guided Ultrasonics Ltd that was set up in 1999 to exploit the guided wave inspection and monitoring technology that was developed in his lab. From 2009-2016 he was chairman of Permasense Ltd that was set up to exploit his group’s work on wall thickness monitoring at high temperatures; the company was acquired by Emerson Inc in 2016. He is also a director of Rheon Labs Ltd that was formed by an ex-Imperial student to commercialise novel technology for impact protection and energy control.