Professor Ian White, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bath, will lead as GW4 Chair of Council from August 2022. He takes over from Professor Lisa Roberts, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at the University of Exeter, who has been in post since September 2020.
Professor White was appointed as Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bath in September 2018. After completing his PhD in 1984, he was appointed as Research Fellow and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.
Professor White has carried out substantial research in the field of optoelectronics and optical communications. Highlights of his research include the invention of new techniques for transmitting signals at low cost over optical fibre links for data and wireless communication systems. Several of these advances have made a commercial impact and he has published over 1,000 journal and conference papers.
Talking about his appointment, Professor White said: “I am delighted to be appointed to the post of GW4 Alliance Chair of Council. GW4’s approach to interdisciplinary, collaborative research is crucial in helping to address major regional and global issues such as net zero, climate change and sustainability, and antimicrobial resistance, and I look forward to leading the Alliance in our next chapter as we seek to strengthen new and existing partnerships between business and academia.
Evelyn Welch graduated from Harvard University, receiving her PhD from the Warburg Institute, University of London. She was previously Senior Vice-President for Service, People & Planning at King’s College London, and had been Vice-President (Arts and Sciences) and Provost (Arts and Sciences). She has taught at University of Essex, the Warburg Institute, and held leadership roles at University of Sussex (PVC Teaching and Learning) and Queen Mary, University of London (Dean, Arts and PVC Research and International). As Professor of Renaissance Studies, she has led major research programmes including ‘The Material Renaissance,’ and ‘Beyond Text: Performances, Sounds, Images’. She recently completed a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award for a project on ‘Renaissance Skin’ and has authored numerous books, including Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500-1800 (OUP 2017), and Shopping in the Renaissance (Yale 2005), winning the Wolfson Prize for History.
Professor Colin Riordan took up the post of President and Vice-Chancellor on 1 September 2012. Previously he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex, having been appointed in October 2007. He moved to Essex from Newcastle University, where he had been Pro Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences since August 2005.
He has published widely on post-war German literature and culture, including writing and editing books on the writers Jurek Becker, Uwe Johnson and Peter Schneider. Other research interests include the history of environmental ideas in German culture.
Professor Riordan is Vice-Chair of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. He is a Trustee of UCAS, chairs the Welsh Higher Education Brussels Board and the IDP Connect Strategic Advisory Board. He is also a member of the British Council Education Advisory Group and the Taith Advisory Board.
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Professor Lisa Roberts took up her post on 1 September 2020. Prior to this, Professor Roberts was Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at the University of Leeds where she led on the development of the University’s research and innovation strategy.
Professor Roberts is a Professor of Virology, having studied for her PhD at the BBSRC Institute for Animal Health (now the Pirbright Institute) and the University of Kent. Earlier in her career, she worked as a Product Development Manager for Procter and Gamble in the UK and Belgium.
She is a Board member of the Russell Group, a Board member of Universities UK and a Board member of Jisc.
Regionally, she is a Board member of both the Heart of the South West and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnerships, Member of the GW4 Council, and Member of the Liveable Exeter Place Board. In May 2022, Lisa was appointed by the Minister of State for Further and Higher Education to chair a working group dedicated to tackling the issue of spiking attacks against students, bringing together vice-chancellors, police, campaigners and victims to produce plans for practical action to help keep students safe.”
