King Charles Steps Out for First Royal Engagement Following Coronation Celebrations — at His Alma Mater!

The newly crowned King broke ground at a new aerospace and energy hub at the University of Cambridge

King Charles is back to work just three days after his historic coronation.

On Monday morning, the King visited the new Whittle Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, his alma mater! The newly crowned monarch paid a visit to the aerospace and energy hub to break ground at the lab after $73 million was secured to develop a new center for disruptive innovation in net zero aviation and energy.

King Charles was welcomed by Whittle Lab staff, aviation leaders and several Members of Parliament and seemed to be in good spirits during a short tour of the space. Scientists there are working to slash the time it takes to develop net zero aviation and energy-related technologies, currently about six to eight years, in half.

He checked out at demonstration of a physical model at the center, a cause he's been connected to since 1994 as Royal Founding Patron of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, a partner of the Whittle Lab. The lab was first established in 1973 and has played a pivotal role in advancing the propulsion and power sectors through work with Rolls-Royce, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Siemens in the years since.

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The King then joined a roundtable of with representatives from the government and aviation industry to discuss the path forward for a more sustainable aviation industry. The pathways come from the Aviation Impact Accelerator and are hosted by the University of Cambridge, in correlation with the U.K. and U.S. governments, the European Union, MIT, the University of Melbourne, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, NASA and the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

The monarch moved outside and had the honor of breaking ground at the lab before a hundred members of Whittle staff, university faculty and students. King Charles laughed as he ceremoniously dug into the dirt and unveiled a new plaque.

"What Rob Miller is doing here, with the Whittle and his remarkable team — of course, the key exercise of all this is to keep the team being and expanding and not lose all these remarkable people who have the innovative capacity and the engineering skills to help lead what we need so badly and so urgently in order to save this planet from increasing catastrophe," King Charles said in a brief speech, praising the director of the center in sentiments that also emphasized his own lifelong passion for conservation and the environment. "And of course, the aviation sector is critical in all this, as are many other sectors."

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"The more we can do, the faster we can do it, with the kind of systems you have here at the Whittle to accelerate the research and development, is so important and encouraging," he continued. "And if I may say so, finally, the great thing is to be working with other countries, transatlantic partnerships, and indeed I hope others who will be part of this real and exciting effort to transform and revolutionize the way we can travel in the future."

"So, I just wanted to offer my warmest congratulations to all those here and particularly as an old graduate of Cambridge University, albeit an arts one!" the King continued, nodding to his own alumni connection as a 1970 grad. "I am full of admiration for the incredible activities which go on here in engineering and so many other fields. This country's greatest strength lies in innovatory skills. The most difficult part is making sure we help to develop those skills and the ingenuity to real product development."

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The King had an ease about him during his first royal engagement after being crowned at Westminster Abbey on Saturday. Though Charles immediately acceded upon the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth in September, his crowning ceremony eight months later formalized his role and continued nearly a thousand years of royal tradition.

King Charles was crowned beside Queen Camilla, his wife of 18 years, in a glittering ceremony that brought members of the royal family, visiting dignitaries and hundreds of community and charity representatives together.

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