* Robert Gordon University has awarded professorships to: Donald Cairns , former associate head of the School of Pharmacy; and David Gray , reader at the Centre for Transport Policy. It awarded readerships to: David Lal , senior lecturer in business and management; Anne Douglas , senior research fellow at Gray's School of Art; Darren Halpin , lecturer in economics and public policy at the Business School; and Peter Strachan , senior lecturer in business and management. Charles Juwah , senior educational development officer, has been made a teaching fellow.
* Glasgow University has awarded professorships to: Susan Barnett , cellular neuroscience; Lee Cronin, chemistry; Robert Hill , learning, teaching and assessment; Lorna MacPherson , dental public health; Andrew Rankin , medical cardiology; and John Reilly , paediatric energy metabolism.
* The Culture Secretary has appointed Sir Colin Lucas chair of the board of the British Library. He is warden of Rhodes House and a former vice-chancellor ofOxford University.
* Oxford University has named Colin Bundy , director and principal of the School of Oriental and African Studies, the fifth warden of Green College; and Martin Browning , director of the Centre for Applied Microeconomics at Copenhagen University, professor of economics and a fellow of Nuffield College.
* Newcastle University has appointed Sean O'Brien , poet, critic, playwright, broadcaster and editor, to a chair in creative writing; and Margaret Atack , professor of 18th-century gender and culture and former head of English at Leeds University, pro vice-chancellor for research.