Professor Alex Milton is Head of the School of Design at Ireland's National College of Art and Design (NCAD), the country's oldest and leading art and design institution. He leads three academic departments and 20 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Since taking up the role he has grown the School's portfolio from seven programmes to twenty, established a vibrant design research culture, and helped raise NCAD to 16th in the EU and 53rd in the world in the QS World University Rankings by Subject for Art and Design.
Alex trained as an industrial designer and worked in practice and in senior academic roles before joining NCAD. He has taught at Edinburgh College of Art, Heriot-Watt University, University of Dundee, Edinburgh Napier University, Central Saint Martins and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. He has been a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University, Aston University and University College Dublin and an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
As Programme Director of Irish Design 2015 he led a €5m government-backed initiative that reached across the island and internationally, generating a direct economic impact of over €55m and an eleven-fold return on investment. He was subsequently commissioned to write Ireland the Design Island, the country's first national design strategy since 1961.
He has authored a number of books, including Research Methods for Product Design, now in its second edition, and Product Design which has been translated into four languages. His creative work has been exhibited at numerous international venues including MUDAC Lausanne, Designers Block Milan, Irish Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of Scotland and 100% Design London. Alex is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Institute of Designers in Ireland.
Alex sees creative education as having the responsibility and power to build a platform for positive cultural, economic and social change.
