Glaciologist Tavi Murray of Swansea University has been awarded a visiting professorship by the University of Waterloo in Canada. Professor Murray was recently awarded £850,000 by the Leverhulme Trust Leadership Fund to head a nine-member team of international researchers to investigate the future stability of the Greenland ice sheet. She will lecture on her findings and experiences of working in the Arctic and Antarctic at Waterloo. Last year, she was awarded the Polar Medal by the Queen.
Peter Rawson, honorary professor at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences at the University of Hull, has been named the new chairman of the Scarborough Museums Trust. In his career as a geologist, Professor Rawson taught at the University of London, where he is emeritus professor, and regularly brought students to the North-East Yorkshire coast on field trips.
Manchester Metropolitan University has appointed two deputy vice-chancellors. Kevin Bonnett, currently pro vice-chancellor at Sheffield Hallam University, will take up the post of deputy vice-chancellor for student experience. Gerry Kelleher, currently pro vice-chancellor at Liverpool John Moores University, will take on the role of deputy vice-chancellor for strategic planning.
Jim Neilson has been appointed the first dean for the National Institute of Health Research faculty trainees. He is currently head of the School of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine and co-ordinating editor of the Cochrane pregnancy and childbirth group. He is also the deputy dean of the faculty of medicine at University of Liverpool. In his new role, Professor Neilson will represent NIHR faculty within the National Health Service and the academic community on behalf of the director-general of research and development for the Department of Health.
Mike Huggins from the division of history and geography at the University of Cumbria has been awarded the title of professor in cultural history. Dr Huggins is known internationally as a scholar of British sport and leisure during the past two centuries. Dr Huggins said: "This is a title which, on a personal level, I am naturally very pleased to receive. I'm particularly grateful to my colleagues and senior staff at the university, who have always encouraged me to reach high standards in my research and teaching."
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has appointed David Nutt, professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Bristol, the new chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Professor Nutt has been appointed chair-designate until 1 November, when he will take up the appointment until 2011. The current chair of the council, Sir Michael Rawlins, will step down on 31 October, having served the maximum ten-year tenure.
The University College for the Creative Arts has appointed Alan Cooke pro rector for corporate resources. Mr Cooke is an MBA-qualified chartered surveyor with experience in both the public and the private sectors. He has been at the University College for the Creative Arts and its predecessor (the Surrey Institute of Art and Design) for 13 years. In his new role he will be responsible for project managing the preparation of the University College's sustainability plan, which outlines the institution's strategy for the period from 2008-09 to 2016-17.
The Royal Society has rewarded 28 academics in British universities for their achievement in the sciences by appointing them fellows. The RS, which was founded in 1660, has three roles: as the UK academy of science, as a learned society and as a funding agency. The new fellows are: Dario Alessi, professor of signal transduction, University of Dundee; Fraser Armstrong, professor of chemistry, University of Oxford; Alan Ashworth, director, Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Cancer Research; Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine, Oxford; Jonathan Blundy, professor of petrology, University of Bristol; Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, chief executive, Medical Research Council; David Deutsch, visiting professor, department of atomic and laser physics, Oxford; John Duncan, assistant director, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge; Brian Foster, professor of experimental physics, Oxford; Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience and chair, Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Oxford; Derek Fray, director of research and emeritus professor of materials chemistry, Cambridge; Christopher Hunter, professor of chemistry, University of Sheffield; Stephen Jackson, Frederick James Quick professor of biology, Cambridge, and head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories, Gurdon Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology, Cambridge; Chris Lamb, director, John Innes Centre and John Innes professor of biology, University of East Anglia; Peter Liss, professor of environmental sciences, UEA; Jan Lowe, senior scientist, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge; Harvey McMahon, group leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge; Anne O'Garra, head, division of immunoregulation, MRC National Institute for Medical Research; Michael Christopher Payne, professor of computational physics, Cambridge; Laurence Pearl, professor of protein crystallography, Institute of Cancer Research; Matthew Rosseinsky, professor of inorganic chemistry, University of Liverpool; Robert Russell, professor of musculoskeletal pharmacology, Oxford; James Scott, professor of ferroics, Cambridge; Evgeny Sklyanin, reader in mathematics, University of York; Claudio Stern, professor of anatomy and head, department of cell and developmental biology, University College London; Michael Stratton, deputy director, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and professor of cancer genetics, Institute of Cancer Research; Ulrike Tillmann, professor of mathematics and tutorial fellow, Merton College, Oxford; Christofer Toumazou, Winston Wong chair in biomedical circuits, executive director and chief scientist, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London.
Sir Michael Parkinson, the TV presenter and talk-show host, has been appointed chancellor of Nottingham Trent University. Sir Michael never attended university, but he said he believed in its role in identifying and developing young talent. He said the role would "give me an opportunity to see what I missed".
The Royal Society of Edinburgh has appointed Gordon Adam the first director of business development in its 225-year history. Mr Adam is the former director of the Scottish business magazine Insider who launched the marketing and communications agency Axis360 in 2006. He will develop the RSE's links with public, private and charity organisations to create projects and boost income. The RSE's initiatives include awarding more than £2 million to Scottish academics and entrepreneurs.
