10.12.2004
Professor Julian Crampton has been appointed Vice-Chancellor at the University of Brighton from the start of the 2005 academic year. He succeeds Sir David Watson who has led the university with such great distinction for the past fifteen years and who announced his retirement earlier this year.
In announcing the news, the Chairman of the university's Board of Governors, Sir Michael Checkland, said
"I am delighted that Professor Crampton has accepted the appointment. He brings to Brighton an exceptional breadth of experience in higher education, a first-rate research record in molecular biology and highly successful involvement with the industrial sector and with regional organisations."
Professor Crampton is currently Professor of Molecular Biology and Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Liverpool where he has held a range of senior appointments.
A graduate of the University of Sussex, Professor Crampton was awarded his PhD from Warwick in 1978 and carried out post-doctoral research in the early '80s in the Department of Biochemistry at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London. He then became the founding Head of the Wolfson Unit of Molecular Genetics at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, a post he held between 1983 and 1996. In 1991, he was appointed to a personal Chair in Molecular Biology by the University of Liverpool and became the university's founding Head of the School of Biological Sciences in 1996.
Since 2000, Professor Crampton has held most of the portfolios as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Liverpool. His extensive experience of strategic leadership includes research, third-stream initiatives, finance and personnel. He has recently completed the Top Management Programme run by the Leadership Foundation.
As Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor, he currently takes responsibility for all regional matters, working with the Regional Development Agency and the Government Office of the North West. He chairs the North West Universities Association Executive Committee and its Research and Strategy Development Group; he convened and chairs meetings of the research-intensive universities of the North of England to plan their contribution to the Northern Way Strategy announced recently by John Prescott; and worked extensively with the City of Liverpool and with Liverpool John Moores University in the creation of the Liverpool Science Park.
Professor Crampton’s personal research has been oriented towards applying molecular biology to the study of a number of problems in tropical medicine - specifically in relation to malaria prevention and treatment and the development of new methods for the treatment of venomous snake and spider bites. Professor Crampton has achieved over £20m in research grants during the last decade, is the author of over 100 refereed publications and of numerous international conference presentations.
A Chartered Biologist, Professor Crampton is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society; and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
On being appointed, Professor Crampton said
"I am very pleased indeed to have been appointed Vice-Chancellor at Brighton. The University of Brighton is one of the most successful of the new universities and I feel privileged to be invited to lead it into its next phase of development at a critical time for the higher education sector.
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