Seamus McDaid , vice-principal, professor and interim chairman of Renfrewshire and Inverclyde National Health Service Primary Care Trust, has been appointed acting principal of Paisley University.
David Clary , professorial fellow of St John's College, Oxford University, and head of the division of mathematical and physical sciences, has been elected president of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Sir Keith Peters , regius professor of physics and head of Cambridge University's School of Clinical Medicine, has been made chair of the Council for Science and Technology, Cardiff University.
Lancaster University has appointed: Gordon Walker , director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability Research at Staffordshire University, chair in environmental justice; and James Faulconbridge , Loughborough University, Peter Hopkins , Edinburgh University, and Elizabeth Olson , Colorado University, to posts in the geography department. Two honorary chairs have been awarded to Ray Bradley , director of the Climate Change Research Centre, Amherst, Massachusetts, and Rob Wilby , Environment Agency.
Paul Gilroy , currently Charlotte Marian Saden professor of sociology and African American studies at Yale University, has been appointed the first holder of the Anthony Giddens professorship in social theory at the London School of Economics.
Ulrich von Oppell , former University of Cape Town Chris Barnard professor of cardiothoracic surgery and now member of the cardiac directorate at the University Hospital of Wales, has been appointed honorary chair of Cardiff University.