Today marks the start of the countdown to the 2008 Examiner Community Awards.

We can now reveal that the top award, the Lifetime Achievement Award, will be presented to Prof Bob Cryan, vice-chancellor of The University of Huddersfield. Bob was born in Deighton and achieved academic excellence before returning to his home town to lead its university. He has big plans for the university and talks to ANDREW HIRST about them here. Every day for the next 11 days we will profile one of the 11 categories before the awards night on Monday, June 23, at theGalpharm Stadium

he is now the first academic to be awarded the Examiner Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob was raised in Deighton and after failing to get an apprenticeship and quitting college during a short rebellious time as a teenager, decided to pursue an academic route after a ‘a clip around the ear’ from his father.

He admits this rebellious streak against conformity may not be at an end.

Bob achieved a first class honours degree in electrical and electronic engineering, became the youngest university lecturer in the UK at the age of just 22, the youngest professor and head of department when he was 30 and the youngest vice-chancellor when he was 42.

Even better – he is vice-chancellor in his home town, at The University of Huddersfield.

He still loves doing research work – often having PhD theses from students on his desk – and has had more than 200 papers about communications systems published.

These have been about transmitting data by cable, laser and over the internet.

He admits he just can’t stop doing research, including overseeing PhD work from students, and he believes it proves his commitment to his role as the chief academic at the university.

Bob loves Huddersfield and plans to more than give something back to the town which framed his formative years.

In his role as vice-chancellor he is now the chief executive and chief academic of a university with 24,000 students and an annual turnover of £110m.

He said: “I want to be here long enough to make a real difference, but not too long to be past my sell-by date.”

But he has set himself an ambitious target.

“The longest a vice-chancellor has been at a university is 17 years – and I want to beat that,” he said.

He has set equally ambitious targets for the university, including doubling the amount of research and becoming the largest non-metropolitan university in the UK.

“Our future is built around three key words – inspiration, innovation and international,’’ he said.

“We are ambitious for our students and for ourselves and, with hard work and determination, we will be a university of international renown.”

Bob has an amazing story to tell.

He was born and raised in Deighton and attended Bradley Junior School and then Deighton High School, but a blood disorder leading to thrombosis caused him to miss around 40% of his final two years at the school.

Ironically it set him out on a lifelong learning path.

“I had to self-study while at home,” he said.

“And that helped me tremendously as I got used to learning on my own.”

But his illness also meant he missed out on the fun of being a teenager and when he reached 16, he rebelled.

He left school and opted to apply for apprenticeships in engineering. He failed to get into ICI, David Brown’s or Holset’s – but now admits he didn’t put his all into the tests.

“One test involved trying to put a peg back together and, to be honest, I thought it was too mundane so I didn't try very hard,” he said.

Undeterred, he went to Huddersfield New College to do A-levels between 1980 and 1982. However, he was also working at the White Swan pub in Huddersfield town centre at the time – and found that was more fun.

He stopped going to college, but when his father, John, found out he gave his son ‘a clip around the ear’.

It did the trick and Bob crammed for the exams and passed his A-levels – but only just.

Ever since then he has achieved nothing less than academic excellence, including five degrees.

He went to Kirklees Careers Service, saying he was interested in physics and they told him there was a lot of physics involved in the electrical and electronic engineering course at Huddersfield Polytechnic.

“I didn’t even know Huddersfield had a polytechnic,” said Bob. “I knew nothing about polytechnics and universities, which is quite ironic now.”

But he had discovered his true vocation in life.

He loved the subject and felt truly inspired.

“I was passionate about it and the staff helped to develop my confidence,” he said.

He graduated four years later with a first class honours degree and won the course prize for academic distinction from the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Part of each year had been spent working in industry. Bob had been to Thorn EMI Defence Electronics in London, helping to design and develop missiles.

The company offered him a job on a fast-track development programme, but soon after starting, the awful realisation dawned on him this was not something he wanted to do as he began to think more and more about the people on the receiving end of the missiles.

“I thought did I want to destroy or develop lives and I decided to develop them instead,” he said.

So he returned to the University of Huddersfield to become a lecturer and to do a PhD at the same time.

He was only 22.

In the following years Bob had a glittering academic career.

In 1992 he became the youngest principal lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University when he was 28 and in 1994 became the youngest professor and head of department when he joined the department of electrical and electronic engineering at Northumbria University in Newcastle.

In 1999, he moved to the University of Wales in Swansea to become chair of electrical and electronic engineering and chair of communications engineering.

It is highly unusual for a person to hold a double chair at a university.

In 2000, Bob became the youngest dean at the University of Wales in Swansea and in 2002 he returned to Northumbria University as pro-vice-chancellor leading on learning and teaching before rising to deputy chancellor and taking on the additional responsibility for research and enterprise.

He was appointed vice-chancellor at the University of Huddersfield in 2006 when he was just 42 and began in January last year.

His mum, Elsa, and brother John still live in the Deighton house where Bob was raised. His father, John, died in 1999 and, in his memory, Bob submitted his research work for the highest academic award available – a Doctor of Science.

Bob said: “He was so proud that I went to university that I took a Doctorate of Science to honour him, which was the first one awarded by the University of Huddersfield.”

His role of academic credentials is mightily impressive.

He has five degrees and is a chartered engineer and chartered physicist, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the Leadership Foundation Top Management Programme.

Bob met his wife, Kath, while he was a student and they married in 1989.

Kath also studied at the University of Huddersfield, gaining a Higher National Certificate in business and finance and subsequently completing her degree at Northumbria University. She now works in finance.

The couple have a 12-year-old son, Joseph, and a 10-year-old daughter, Georgia.

The family live in Huddersfield – or as Bob puts it “the best town in the UK”.

Bob and Kath have a long association with the Examiner as they both delivered it on paper rounds as youngsters.

He said: “I now feel I’m back home and I’m planning on staying long-term. I’m a local lad who is very proud of Huddersfield and I’ve found something to do that I’m passionate about and I’m paid to do it. What more can I ask?”

Past winners of the Examiner Lifetime Achievement Award have been the University of Huddersfield Chancellor and actor Patrick Stewart, England 1966 World Cup winner Ray Wilson, Last Of The Summer Wine creator Roy Clarke, cash and carry tycoon Lawrence Batley, comedian Gorden Kaye and Derek Ibbotson who broke the world mile record in July, 1957.