title: Martin Lowson
text: # Martin Lowson
  
  Professor Martin Lowson (5 January 1938 – 14 June 2013) was an aeronautical engineer. He held a number of senior academic appointments in UK and US universities, was a co-patentee of the BERP helicopter rotor system, and also made a significant contribution to the development of personal rapid transport systems.
  
  ## Early life
  
  Martin Vincent Lowson was born in Totteridge, Hertfordshire, on 5 January 1938.
  
  ## Education
  
  He attended The King's School in Worcester, after which he became an apprentice with Vickers-Armstrong. Lowson gained a PhD in 1963, after which he spent a year in the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research, where he worked on aero-acoustics.
  
  ## Personal life
  
  Lowson married Ann Pennicutt in 1961. They had two children, Sarah and Jonathan. Lowson's interests included squash and bluegrass music.
  
  ## Death
  
  Lowson died of a stroke on 14 June 2013, at the age of 75.
  
  ## Honours and awards
  
  * Royal Aeronautical Society Award for contributions to world’s first man powered flight 1961
  * Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America 1969
  * Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering 1991
  * Busk Prize of Royal Aeronautical Society for best paper in Aerodynamics 1992.
  * Queens Award for Technology received by Westland Team for BERP blade 1994
  * Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1995
  * British Wind Energy Association Award for Research 1997
  * Altran Prize for Innovations to improve urban quality of life 2001
  * Fellow, Chartered Institute of Transport 2003
  * Viva Award for Transport Innovation from Worshipful Company of Carmen 2010
  
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