Congratulations to Aidan Hawkins from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (SMAE) who has been awarded a prestigious Sir James Martin Entrance Scholarship worth £10,000 per year for a maximum of four years.  In order to be eligible for the scholarship, Stage one students registered on a BEng or MEng programme in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) are initially required to meet a financial eligibility criterion.  The scholarship is awarded to the student in this group with the highest A level results on entry to QUB.  Two further scholarships will be awarded from the Sir James Martin fund at the end of the academic year based on the financial eligibility criterion and the highest marks in Stage 1. 

The Sir James Martin Fund was established in 2016 by John and James Martin, Jane Livesey and Anne Hess to commemorate their father, Sir James Martin.  Sir James Martin was born in Crossgar, County Down in 1893 and died in 1981. From an early age Sir James displayed exceptional powers of inventiveness and, while still in his teens, had designed, made and sold a wide variety of machines. In his early twenties, he left home for London arriving with ten pounds in his pocket, shortly after he started his business from a small shed in Acton which eventually grew to become Martin-Baker.

Photo L-R: Mr Paul Hermon (Director of Education), Mr Aidan Hawkins