Principal of Queen Mary appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London

24 March 2006

Professor Adrian F M Smith FRS, Principal, Queen Mary, University of London, has been appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London by the University Council.

Professor Smith will take up the role in July 2006 for a period of three years.  He will continue in his role as Principal at Queen Mary, a position he has held since 1998.  Professor Smith said: “This is an exciting time to be appointed to the senior management of the Federal University and I am looking forward to working towards the changes which will help the University adapt to the demands of the future.”

Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, Sir Graeme Davies said: “I very much welcome the appointment of Professor Adrian Smith and I am confident that he will make a significant contribution to the further development of the federal University.”

The University’s current Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Colin Bundy, has held the position for three years, and is retiring in July 2006 from this post and as Director and Principal of the School of African and Oriental Studies.

Ends-

For further information please contact:
Alex Fernandes
Senior Communications Officer
Queen Mary, University of London
a.fernandes@qmul.ac.uk 
Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 7910

Or Binda Rai
Head of Communications
University of London
binda.rai@london.ac.uk 
Tel: +44 (0)20 7862 8005

Notes to Editors:

Professor Adrian F M Smith FRS

Adrian Smith was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge and University College London.  He began his academic career as a Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Oxford in 1971, moving to University College London in 1974 as Lecturer in Statistics, then to the University of Nottingham in 1977 where he remained until 1990 as Professor of Statistics and Head of Mathematics.  It was at Nottingham that he held his first post in university management as Head of the University’s Strategy Committee.

In 1990 Professor Smith became Professor of Statistics at Imperial College, London and held a number of posts over the next eight years, including Head of Department of Mathematics. 

Professor Smith became Principal of Queen Mary in 1998, and was re-appointed in 2003 for a further five year tenure. 

Professor Smith has published three monographs, nine edited/translated volumes and more than 100 academic papers.  He is a recent President of the Royal Statistical Society, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001 in recognition of his contribution to statistics. 

In 2004 he headed a ground-breaking governmental inquiry into post-14 mathematics education – Making Mathematics Count – which was the driver for major mathematics reform in England.  He chairs London Higher, the representative ‘umbrella’ organisation for universities in London which promotes the capital to overseas students as a global leader in higher education.

Queen Mary, University of London

Queen Mary is one of the leading colleges in the federal University of London, with over 11,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and an academic and support staff of around 2,600.

Queen Mary is a research university, with over 80 per cent of research staff working in departments where research is of international or national excellence (RAE 2001).  It has a strong international reputation, with around 20 per cent of students coming from over 100 countries.

The College has 21 academic departments and institutes organised into three sectors: Science and Engineering; Humanities, Social Sciences and Laws; and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

It has an annual turnover of £174 million, research income worth £43 million, and it generates employment and output worth nearly £400 million to the UK economy each year.

Queen Mary’s roots lie in four historic colleges: Queen Mary College, Westfield College, St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College and the London Hospital Medical College.