Robert Beattie, community investment coordinator with IBM UK Ltd, has been appointed chairman of the new Scottish Further Education Funding Council, which will be set up on January 1. Mr Beattie is on the board of management of Stevenson College, and chairs Scottish secretary Donald Dewar's advisory committee on post school education and training of young people with special needs. Mr Dewar said: "Robert is a committed supporter of further education and is well qualified to lead the new council in developing further education for the new millennium."
Former Irish president Mary Robinson has become the first woman chancellor of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, in its 400-year history. Mrs Robinson defied Catholic convention of the 1960s to study at the university - historically the education heart of the Irish Protestant community.
Peter Schroeder has been appointed director of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council-sponsored Institute of Food Research. He will take up his post on January 1. Until recently Professor Schroeder was director of research and development at the Nestle R&D centre in York. He will take forward the new scientific programme of the institute that has been developed by the BBSRC's expert group.
Aberdeen University has appointed Francis Watson, reader in biblical theology at King's College, London, to the chair of new testament exegesis. Dr Watson will replace Howard Marshall who is retiring.
The Institute of Employment Studies has appointed six new members to its council. They are Anne Minto, director of human resources at Smith Industries plc; John Rivers, director of human resources at Rolls-Royce plc; Christina Townsend, chief executive of EDEXCEL; Helen Edwards, chief executive of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders; Marianne Neville-Rolf, regional director of the government office of the north west; and David Melville, chief executive of the Further Education Funding Council for England.
David Hartley, previously director of the University Computing Service at the University of Cambridge, has been appointed deputy president of the British Computer Society.
At the University of Manchester, David Mann, reader in pathology, has become professor of neuropathology, and John Durrell, reader in physics, becomes professor of nuclear physics.