Far from hanging up his tools, the Scottish engineer is determined to go on promoting the role his profession can play in designing a carbon-free economy

He may hold the most prestigious role in UK engineering, but Sir Jim McDonald’s earliest foray into the sector was disastrous. As a 15-year-old in the 1970s, he was in a rock band and bought himself a secondhand amplifier. In an attempt to get more power out of the device, he took a screwdriver to it.

“It was like that scene from Back to the Future,” says the outgoing president of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE). “I went flying across my bedroom, holding my guitar, and hit the wall with some considerable force.”