Academic chair appointments

Professor Nicholas Davey
Department of Philosophy
Personal Chair

Nicholas trained at the Universities of York, Sussex and Tuebingen. He has lectured at City University, London, Manchester University and the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.

Nicholas came to the University in 1996 and was appointed Reader in 1998. He served as head of department for five years and has started inter-disciplinary courses in Art and Philosophy. Currently involved in the teaching of 19th and 20th century philosophy, Nicholas is a specialist in aesthetics and hermeneutics. He is widely published in both fields.

His most recent book on the hermeneutics of H.G. Gadamer will shortly be published by The State University of New York Press. His next monograph concerns the relationship between hermeneutics and aesthetics.

Professor Elizabeth Leo
Faculty of Education and Social Work
Chair in Education

Elizabeth joined the University from De Montfort University, where she was Professor of Education, Head of the School of Education and Faculty Director of Research and Postgraduate Studies from 2000-2003.

Following a teaching career in schools, she began her research career in 1993 at the University of Durham, working on an ESRC funded-project and completing a PhD in the social psychology of education. In 1995, she joined the Institute of Education, University of London, where her roles included Assistant Dean of Research, Course Leader of the Doctor in Education programme and Associate Director of the International School Effectiveness and Improvement Centre. Elizabeth was recently on secondment to the Government’s Department for Education and Skills, as Senior Adviser for Research.

Her research focuses on leadership and school improvement and in particular, the development of new pedagogies for effective motivation and learning. Elizabeth has worked successfully with schools and local education authorities to promote research-led educational change and reform that inspires learning and in turn, raises achievement.

She is currently developing innovative research methodologies involving inter-disciplinary and multi-professional research teams focusing on leadership and motivational issues in education.

Professor Allan Gillespie
Department of Electronic Engineering & Physics
Chair of Photonics

A graduate of Glasgow University, Allan was previously Professor of Photonics at the University of Abertay, a post he held for 8 years. He has also worked at the National Institute for Nuclear & High Energy Physics in Amsterdam, and spent a year at Stanford University, California, as a visiting scientist. He has an international reputation in physics in several areas, is a member of the EPSRC College, and currently holds four EPSRC/PPARC/DTI research grants.

Allan's current research interests fall into two categories. First, the physics of free-electron lasers and light sources based on high-energy electron accelerators, including beam diagnostics based on ultrafast (femtosecond) laser optics. This work is carried out in several international laboratories, including DESY in Hamburg and SLAC at Stanford University in California.

Second, emerging display technologies, including head-mounted displays using P-OLED (Polymer Organic Light-Emitting Diode) microdisplays, wearable computers and location-aware wireless based systems.

Allan is active in the displays community in the UK, and interacts with the Scottish Optoelectronics Association and ADRIA, the EU FP6 displays network.