Professor Sir Christopher Snowden is to become the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton.
The news comes after Professor Don Nutbeam announced last year that he would be retiring as Vice-Chancellor no later than October 2016.
Professor Snowden is currently Vice-Chancellor at the University of Surrey and has been in this post since 2005. He has had a highly distinguished academic career, which has been recognised through his Fellowships of the Royal Academy of Engineering and The Royal Society. He is currently President of Universities UK and is a member of the Prime Minister’s advisory Council for Science and Technology.
Professor Snowden said in a statement:
“I am honoured and delighted to be joining the University of Southampton as its Vice-Chancellor and look forward to building on its strong international reputation to achieve even greater success in the future.
Southampton has a reputation for being a friendly institution and I look forward to meeting staff, students and alumni. I am particularly excited at the prospect of leading a university which has academic strength across such a wide range of disciplines.”
Snowden studied electronic and electrical engineering at the University of Leeds, gaining a BSc in 1977, an MSc and a PhD in 1982.