Professor Bill Ion, former Strathclyde Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM) Head of Department, has been awarded the 2025 Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education.

The Sir Misha Black Medal honours outstanding contributions to design education. For more than 35 years, Professor Ion helped shape design education in the UK and internationally, establishing Product Design Engineering as a discipline that unites engineering design, industrial design, and manufacturing.

Flagship course

The Professor co-developed and taught the groundbreaking Total Design course at the University from 1986 to 1991 with Professor Stuart Pugh. He went on to found the MEng Product Design Engineering programme in 1991, which remains the flagship course of DMEM.

Beyond education, he has been central to manufacturing innovation as founding Director of the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) and part of the team that established the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland and the establishment of its Manufacturing Skills Academy, with a focus on lifelong learning.

The Sir Misha Black Awards were established in 1977 to recognise distinguished services to design education. Lady Helen Hamlyn and Victoria Thornton of the Thornton Education Trust were also 2025 award recipients.