Leading Researcher Appointed as new Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Northumbria University

Most recently a Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at The University of Leicester, Professor Postlethwaite worked previously at Oxford University, and studied at Imperial College London and Cambridge University.

He is one of the country’s leading researchers in control engineering, he has held visiting research positions at the University of California at Berkeley and the Australian National University and he has just returned from a period of study leave at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a former member of the National Advisory Committee on Avionics and Flight Systems, and currently serves on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Engineering Strategic Advisory Team.

As Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Strategic Planning), he will have responsibility for strategic development, shaping and implementing ambitious plans to establish Northumbria University as one of the leading research-engaged, business-focused universities, meeting the needs of twenty-first-century Britain.

Northumbria wishes to double its capacity in research and enterprise, to increase further its strength in the provision of Masters-level education, achieve a significant rise in postgraduate research student numbers, and extend its global reach.

The institution has invested more than £200m in new facilities for students and staff in recent years, is currently building a £30m indoor sports arena with the most modern facilities in British higher education, and has embarked on a programme of strategic investment in research excellence.

It enjoyed the largest improvement of any university in the North of England in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, with work in 11 of 12 areas submitted judged to be ‘world-leading’.

Professor Andrew Wathey, the Vice-Chancellor of Northumbria University, said: “Professor Ian Postlethwaite is a scholar of distinction and a leader of substance. He has extremely broad experience of international higher education and research, and a record of success in many of the areas in which this University is committed to making continuing advances - vital enterprise and research, strong external partnerships, sustainable economic and cultural well-being, growing international operations, and a demonstrable record of fulfilling the potential of our undergraduate and postgraduate students.

“Our campuses, City and region have transformed in recent years, and I am confident that the expertise Ian Postlethwaite brings will enhance the work undertaken within and beyond them in the years ahead.”

Professor Ian Postlethwaite said: “Northumbria University, and the North East of England, are of course renowned as excellent places in which to work and live, but I am especially attracted by the University’s ambition to set the pace in the establishment of a much-needed, distinctive model of excellence for the future.

“Northumbria is configuring itself to respond through research and innovation to the priorities of a rapidly changing economy and society, whilst balancing the ambitions and needs of its students, businesses and the wider community.

“The University is a significant enterprise, in terms of scale and global reach, and is acknowledged to occupy a strong position in the sector, not least amongst students, but also in industry and the professions. I admire both its distinguished tradition and its entrepreneurial flair and for all of these reasons I am very much looking forward to getting started.”