During his lifetime William Penney was made a Commonwealth Fund Fellow at University of Wisconsin – Madison ( 1932 ) ; Fellow of the Royal Society ( 1946 ) ; Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ( 1970 ) . Among the honours he received was the Rumford Medal by the Royal Society ( 1966 ) . He was awarded an Honorary Degree ( Doctor of Science ) by the University of Bath in 1966 . For services to the United States , he was one of the first recipients of the United States Medal of Freedom ( with Silver Palm ) , awarded by President Harry S. Truman . For his services to Britain he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ; 1946 ) ; raised to Knight Commander of the order ( KBE ; 1952 ) ; made a life peer , taking the title '' ' Baron Penney ' '' , of East Hendred in the Royal County of Berkshire ( 7 July 1967 ) ; awarded the Order of Merit ( OM ; 1969 ) . He served on the board of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority ( from 1954 to 1967 ) and became its Chairman ( 1962 – 1967 ) . In 1974 he chaired a committee assessing the need for an expert group to be set up to advise and warn the engineering profession on matters of structural safety , which reported positively , and he served as the first chairman of the UK 's Standing Committee on Structural Safety from 1976 to 1982
Medal of Freedom
Medal of Freedom (1945)
William Penney, Baron Penney