Professor Roy Crawford

Roy Crawford, considered to be the father of research for the rotational moulding industry, was a university administrator and mechanical engineering academic, whose primary research interest was in the mechanical properties and processing behaviour of plastics. 

 

From 1989 to 1999 he was Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the School of Mechanical and Process Engineering at the Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland, which became an international hub for rotomoulding research under his guidance. He was also responsible for establishing the Polymer Processing Research Centre at Queens University. 

 

From 1999 to 2001 he was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland in New Zealand before moving to Waikato University.  He was the fourth vice chancellor in the University's history, and was appointed a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to tertiary education in 2015.