Defence Scientific Advisory Council
The Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC) is a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence consisting of world-renowned scientists and engineers from UK industry and academia.
It is the main source of independent advice on non-nuclear science, technology, engineering, analysis and mathematics issues to ministers and senior MOD officials.
Professor Delpy is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and has over 30 years experience in both the academic and applied biomedical physics domains.
He has considerable experience of chairing high-level scientific committees, experience he will be able to bring to bear in his new role.
Professor Delpy said:
I am extremely excited about taking on this role. Science and engineering play key roles in Defence and I hope that my experience, both at UCL (University College London) and EPSRC, will enable me to bring valuable knowledge and expertise to this role
The outgoing chair, Professor Ian Poll, served for 3 years. Under his chairmanship, DSAC has undergone significant restructuring to better align with a transformed MOD and provided advice on a number of topics.
In particular the Terrier review, which provided timely recommendations on how the technical problems encountered with adapting and testing this vehicle could be resolved, enabled the project to proceed to successful delivery of the modified vehicle for deployment on operations.
Secondly, the Operational Analysis Support to Current Operations review identified the importance of the role played by deployed analysts and made detailed recommendations on how to ensure the continued effectiveness of this valuable resource.
Professor Delpys appointment as the chair of DSAC is for an initial term of 3 years.