Appointments

The pro vice-chancellor and chief executive of University Campus Suffolk has announced his retirement. Bob Anderson, who has been in the post since January 2006, has steered the institution from its foundation and will step down in September.

An academic expert in enterprise and entrepreneurship has been honoured for his work in the field. John Thompson, Roger M. Bale professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Huddersfield, is one of ten people presented with the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion 2009. He was nominated thanks to his involvement with the new Enterprise Development bachelors degree at Huddersfield Business School, which requires students to start their own businesses as part of the course.

The Government's Chief Medical Officer, Liam Donaldson, will join Newcastle University as its chancellor. Sir Liam has been Chief Medical Officer for England and the UK's Chief Medical Adviser since 1998, and is currently involved in advising the Government about methods to combat the global swine flu pandemic. He succeeds Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, who is retiring after ten years in the role.

Imyhamy Dharmadasa has been appointed president of the Association of Professional Sri Lankans in the UK. The professor of electronic materials and devices at Sheffield Hallam University is an expert in the field of solar energy, and is currently working with the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority to help the country fulfil its goal to ditch fossil fuels and become a "renewable energy island".

The University of Wolverhampton has appointed Henry Gun-Why as its director of facilities. He previously held senior management posts at the University of Liverpool and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, and will assume responsibility for Wolverhampton's capital programmes in areas including property, estates and facilities.

David Kirk has been made chairman of physical education and sport at the University of Bedfordshire. Professor Kirk was formerly pro vice- chancellor for research and professor of physical education and youth sport at Leeds Metropolitan University. Prior to that he was professor of physical education and youth sport at Loughborough University.

Three scientists have joined the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast. They are: David Jess, winner of a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, whose research will focus on the outer layers of the Sun; Henry Hsieh, also an STFC postdoctoral fellowship holder, who will investigate a type of icy comet that orbits the Asteroid Belt; and Pedro Lacerda, one of the first recipients of a Royal Society Newton International fellowship, whose work centres on the properties of bodies orbiting the Sun.

Terence Stephenson has been appointed Nuffield professor of child health at one of the world's largest centres for paediatric research. He joins University College London's Institute of Child Health, which trains paediatric specialists and conducts research into the causes and prevention of childhood diseases. Professor Stephenson was previously professor of child health and dean of the University of Nottingham Medical School, and non-executive director of the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. He was recently elected president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

An independent director has been appointed to the board of New Campus Glasgow, the body responsible for delivering the £300 million project to merge the city centre's Central, Metropolitan and Nautical vocational colleges. Graham Black has 23 years' experience in project management and has led about 300 schemes involving mergers, relocations and co-locations.

Michael Petterson has returned to his alma mater, the University of Leicester, to take up the post of professor of applied and environmental geology. Professor Petterson was previously based at the British Geological Survey, a research institute partly funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, where he was director for science resources and head of its economic minerals and geo-chemical baseline programme.

A senior academic at the University of Glasgow has been appointed chair of the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board's research panel. Gerda Reith, senior lecturer in sociology, will oversee the newly formed body, which advises the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Gambling Commission about research, education and treatment programmes, as well as the funding required to develop a national "responsible gambling" strategy.

Yvonne Dickinson has joined the University of Leicester's Institute of Lifelong Learning as partnerships manager, with responsibility for the development and management of its external links. She has 25 years' experience in further and higher education, and was previously project manager for the Collaborative Higher Education Alliance at the University of Derby.

The Council of Professors and Heads of Computing has elected the head of the University of Greenwich's School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences as its new chair. Liz Bacon will be joined by Lachlan MacKinnon, head of the School of Computing and Creative Technologies at the University of Abertay Dundee, who will take up the role of vice-chair. The council is the representative body for higher education computing in the UK and acts on behalf of the industry in consultations with the Government.

Helen Lentell is transferring from the University of the South Pacific (USP) to become director of distance learning development at the University of Leicester. Ms Lentell was founding director of the Centre for Educational Development and Technology at USP, where she was responsible for course development, learning support and the professional development of staff.

The University of East Anglia's Karen Heywood has been presented with an international prize for her contributions to oceanography. Professor Heywood, who is based at the university's School of Environmental Sciences, won the Georg Wurst Prize, named after the oceanography pioneer and awarded twice a year by the German Society for Marine Research and the journal Ocean Dynamics. Professor Heywood's work has helped to improve our understanding of climate change.