29 June 2006

Four new Vice Principals named by University of Dundee

Four new Vice Principals have been named by the University of Dundee. They will head each of four new Colleges under a revised university structure designed to build on Dundee's success in a rapidly changing competitive environment. Two of the new Vice Principals are external appointments and two are internal.

Professor Anne Anderson OBE, MA, PhD, will be the Vice Principal and Head of the College of Art & Design, Architecture, Engineering & Physical Sciences.

Professor Anderson is currently Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Law, Business & Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow. She also holds the position of Director of the People at the Centre of Information and Communication Technologies (PACCIT) programme (2000-2006), a major national initiative funded by the ESRC, EPSRC and the DTI and is also co-director of the new Adam Smith Institute at the University of Glasgow with a mission to encourage interdisciplinary research. A psychologist by training, she has made her mark as a research leader and manager. Her key interests lie in human communication and the impacts of new information and communication technologies - an area in which she has over 50 publications, including two books. Founder and coordinator of the Multimedia Communications Group at Glasgow, Anne specialises in research in multimedia communication between humans and on factors affecting cooperative working.

As Director of the £7 million PACCIT project she has a first class track record for interdisciplinary leadership, having been responsible for commissioning, co-ordinating and disseminating the activities of 200 researchers in 18 interdisciplinary research projects scattered across the UK, as well as commissioning 13 new LINK projects. The programme is expected to lead to further university-industry research collaborations. She has recently been awarded the prestigious ESRC Directorial Fellowship.

Professor Anderson graduated first from the University of Glasgow in 1976 where she then took a PhD. Posts followed in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh before returning to Glasgow in 1986. She was appointed to a Chair in Psychology in Glasgow in 1997 and moved to the School of Business and Management in 2002. She was awarded an OBE for services to social sciences in 2002. Professor Anderson was the Director of the Graduate School from 2000 to 2005 before being promoted to be Deputy Dean and Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences. In this role she is in charge of the Faculty's research strategy and preparations for RAE 2008.

Professor Anderson will take up post on 1 September 2006.

Picture credited to the University of Glasgow

Professor Irene Leigh OBE, BSc, MBBS, MD, DSc (Med), FRCP, FMedSci, will be the Vice Principal and Head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing.

Professor Irene Leigh is Director of the Cancer Research UK Skin Tumour Laboratory at Barts and the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London where she holds the Chair of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. She was awarded the OBE for services to medicine in the Queen's 80th Birthday Honours List.

A biomedical researcher of international reputation, Professor Leigh has developed a world class research centre in skin biology and disease and has extensive research management experience in both universities and the NHS. Her career has developed in London where, over recent years, she has been Assistant Warden and Dean for Research at Queen Mary's and Barts and the London NHS Trust. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999.

She first graduated BSc from the University of London in 1968, then with the MBBS in 1971 and later MD in 1991 with a DSc in 1999. She trained initially as an NHS consultant in clinical dermatology - in which she continues to perform specialist clinics - and came late into academic research where her core interest is in keratinocyte biology. Her work has greatly added to the understanding of a range of conditions including hereditary skin diseases, sensorineural deafness, cardiomyopathy and keratinocyte derived cancers.

Professor Leigh saw through the merger of Barts and London Schools with Queen Mary's while head of department. She became Head of the Division of Medicine on the merger and has risen through leadership roles since. Professor Leigh is a distinguished and well known international figure in the dermatological world where she has driven international networks including the European Society of Dermatological Research of which she was president and the Skin Club which she chaired. She is consultant to a number of pharma and health companies, an INSERM reviewer for the French government and has remained involved in student teaching and activities since the 1970s, having a special interest in e-learning and developing multiple distance learning postgraduate degrees. Over the last six years she has published over 60 papers, 11 book chapters and four books and has attracted more than £5 million in research grants.

She has just completed a successful quinquennial review of the Cancer Research UK Skin Tumour Laboratory and this programme together with a DEBRA funded programme in skin cancer - representing a combined £6 million in grants - will accompany her to Dundee to help consolidate Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Professor Leigh is expected to work with a team of 12-15 scientists in Dundee.

Professor Leigh will take up post on 20 November 2006.

Professor Peter Downes OBE, BSc, PhD, FRSE will be the Vice Principal and Head of the College of Life Sciences.

Professor Downes has been Dean of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee since 2002. A highly distinguished biochemist, he has played a key role in developing life sciences in Dundee to its current status since joining the University in 1989 as Professor of Biochemistry. His work co-directing the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy has led to the signing of a two phase £23m contract and won the Queen's Anniversary Prize 2005. He is among the UK's most cited scientists and his scientific contributions over the years have been recognised with various awards including the Colworth Medal.

He has played a fundamental role in building life sciences activity at the university to its current international position and Scotland's only 5* department in biological sciences. Today the School of Life Sciences, including the Wellcome Trust Biocentre, employs over 700 scientists and support staff from 54 countries and is at the core of a biotechnology cluster that accounts for 16% of the local economy. This year the new £23m Sir James Black Centre has opened, housing 180 scientists researching tropical diseases and diabetes.

His work has undoubtedly contributed to the University having been named by the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia as the most quoted university in Europe over the last 10 years, in biology and biochemistry. As Dean of Life Sciences he can also take significant credit from a poll of international scientists who have named Dundee for two years running as the best place to work in Europe.

As a biochemist Peter has made an important contribution over many years. He identified the mechanism of action of the drug Lithium used to treat manic depression and has played a key role in the identification of the chemical mediator by which insulin exerts its effects on the body. He was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Biochemical Society 2001-04 and is a member of the Council of the Biosciences Federation. He was honoured by the Queen with an OBE in 2004.

Professor Downes will take up post on 1 August 2006.

Professor Christopher Whatley BA, PhD, FRHistS, FRSE, will be the Vice Principal and Head of the College of Arts & Social Sciences.

Professor Whatley has been Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at the University of Dundee since 2002. A distinguished historian he has risen through the ranks since joining the University in 1979 as lecturer, with a four year spell at the University of St Andrews before returning to Dundee in 1992. He was made Professor of Scottish History in 1997. Under his headship the Department of History (5 rated) has risen to be recognised as one of the best in the country. A graduate of the University of Strathclyde, where he also took his PhD, he has published considerably including authorship of six substantial books, editorship of nine books and about 60 other works.

Professor Whatley has continued to write and teach throughout his leadership roles as Head and Dean and remains an enthusiastic and scholarly historian. He has been an external examiner for programmes in Scotland and the European Union and is a member of Peer Review College of the Arts & Humanities Research Council. Later this year he is poised to publish a major 400 page work to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the Union of the Parliaments which will be launched in the Scottish Parliament. Professor Whatley is in frequent demand by TV and radio as consultant, contributor and presenter. He is a founder director and chair of the editorial board of Dundee University Press.

Professor Whatley will take up post on 1 August 2006.

University Principal Sir Alan Langlands welcomed the appointments:
"We are delighted to have put such an experienced and talented team in place to lead the next stage of the University's development. Their combined academic, leadership and management skills will provide a powerful force to drive Dundee's achievements to the next level of success. All four are first rate researchers and committed teachers. By replacing seven faculties with four colleges we will build on our strengths in life sciences and medicine, give clearer definition and authority to the professional disciplines, accelerate progress in the arts, sciences and visual disciplines and ensure that Dundee is positioned to develop to its full potential in the years ahead. We look forward to welcoming our new Vice Principals Professor Anderson from Glasgow and Professor Leigh from London, and to working in new ways with Professors Downes and Whatley who have already contributed a great deal to the success of the University."