Professor John Heywood (95), who was Chair of Teacher Education at Trinity College Dublin from 1977 to 1996, has published a new major study of engineering education In Search of Technological Excellence. Education and Engineering in Post-War Britain.

Professor Heywood has authored or co-authored 200 publications, including twenty books.

He edited the first handbook for optical and radio observers of artificial earth satellites. This began his lifelong interest in the public understanding of engineering (technological and engineering literacy). He directed a pioneering study of what engineers do at work. In 2023, Professor Heywood became the first non-US national to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

Professor Heywood has lived in Bray for almost 50 years.  He was Chairman of the Board of Management of St Fergal's NS in Bray and in 2015 led the process of amalgamating the junior and senior schools into one.

During the 1980s and 90s he directed the Christian Brothers’ school technology projects in Ireland. The Christian Brothers established the Marino Curriculum Service with a view to undertaking research and development in new curriculum studies, especially technology, which he directed and which led Trinity to establish  a national programme of in service education for teachers, giving teachers working in rural areas the opportunity to study for diplomas and masters degrees locally.

Prof Heywood's papers relating to the Committee on the form and function of the Intermediate certificate, the Curriculum and Examinations Board, and teacher education, have been deposited together with a Commentary in the archive of Trinity Library.

Published by Oxford University Press In Search of Technological Excellence. Education and Engineering in Post-War Britain is now available.