Chris Higgins
Professor Chris Higgins has been the Vice-Chancellor of Durham University in the United Kingdom since April 2007.[1] His academic background is in biomedical science.
Higgins was previously Director of the UK's Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre and Head of Division at Imperial College London's Faculty of Medicine. He maintains a seat at the Human Genetics Commission, a government advisory body, and is chair of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC), which advises the UK government on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)[2] and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).[3]
Professor Higgins[4] is a Durham graduate, having achieved a BA in Botany there in 1976. This was followed by a Durham PhD in 1979.[5] His background in biomedicine developed at the University of Dundee, Scotland and the University of California, Berkeley.[6]
Footnotes
- ↑ Higgins succeeded Sir Kenneth Calman as Vice-Chancellor; see 'Vice-Chancellor retires from Durham University.' Durham University.
- ↑ Commonly known as 'Mad Cow Disease'.
- ↑ Durham University: 'Durham appoints top scientist as Vice-Chancellor.'
- ↑ Not to be confused with the fictional phonetician from George Bernard Shaw'sPygmalion. This link to linguistics is the fourth in a recent chain found in the higher echelons of Durham: previous Chancellor Sir Peter Ustinov was multilingual; his successor Bill Bryson has written on popular linguistics topics; and Higgins's predecessor Sir Kenneth Calman controversially presided over the closure of the Linguistics Department at Durham University.
- ↑ Higgins (1979).
- ↑ Durham 21 student newspaper: Durham to appoint Higgins as Vice-Chancellor.'
Reference
Higgins CF (1979) Peptide transport by embryos of germinating barley (Hordeum vulgare). Unpublished PhD thesis, Durham University.