Sir Alan Geoffrey Wilson is a British scientist and social scientist currently teaching at
University College LondonUniversity College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...
.
He was born in
BradfordBradford is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
in 1939, and educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School,
DarlingtonDarlington is a town in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England, and the main population centre in the Borough of Darlington. Darlington has a resident population of 97,838 as of 1997. On 1 April 1997, the Borough of Darlington became a unitary authority area, which separated it from the...
and
Corpus Christi College, CambridgeCorpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable for being the only college to have been founded by Cambridge townspeople, having been established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...
where he read
MathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
.
He converted in the 1960s from theoretical
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
to the social sciences through research on the mathematical modelling of cities (working in Oxford and London). From 1961-64, he was a Scientific Officer in the Theoretical Physics Group at the
Rutherford LaboratoryThe Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council . It is located on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus at Chilton near Didcot in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom...
; from 1964-66, a Research Officer at the Institute of Economics and Statistics in the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
; from 1966-68, Head of the Mathematical Advisory Group, Ministry of Transport; and from 1968-70, Assistant Director of the Centre for Environment Studies in London. He was appointed Professor of Urban and Regional Geography at the
University of LeedsThe University of Leeds is a major teaching and research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire and, with over 33,000 full-time students, is the second largest single site university in the United Kingdom. In the world university league tables published in November 2008, the university's ‘employer...
in 1970, Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 1989 and was Vice Chancellor from 1991. He was elected a Fellow of the
British AcademyThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established by Royal Charter in 1902, and is a fellowship of more than 800 scholars...
in 1994, and was knighted in 2001.
Sir Alan retired in May 2004 after 13 years as Vice-Chancellor. During his time the University underwent unprecedented growth and transformation. Student numbers increased from 12,000 to 31,500, turnover increased from £100m to £320m and research income increased by more than 400% to £71m. Nearly 1,000 of the University’s researchers now work in 5 or 5* rated departments.
His knowledge of the university sector led to his appointment as first Director General for Higher Education by the UK Government, a post which he took up part-time in February 2004 and full-time on 1 June 2004. In this role, he was a key adviser to secretaries of state
Charles ClarkeCharles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Norwich South since 1997, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006.-Early life:...
,
Ruth KellyRuth Maria Kelly is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Bolton West since 1997, athough she will stand down as an MP at the next general election...
and
Alan JohnsonAlan Arthur Johnson is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle since 1997. He has been the Home Secretary since June 2009, and before that filled a wide variety of Cabinet positions, including both Health and Education Secretary...
, and played a critical role in the government’s drive to
widen participationThe goal of widening participation in higher education is a major component of government education policy in the United Kingdom; see role of the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills...
in
higher educationHigher education refers to a level of education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, institutes of technology and other collegiate level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools and career colleges, that award academic...
and maintaining a world-class education system. Sir Alan was awarded the Laureat d’Honneur by the
International Geographical UnionThe International Geographical Union is an international geographical society. The first International Geographical Congress was held in Antwerp in 1871. Subsequent meetings led to the establishment of the permanent organization in Brussels, Belgium, in 1922. The Union has 34 Commissions and four...
and the 2004 Prize in Regional Science by the European Regional Science Association.
In May 2006, Sir Alan became a Fellow of the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
. In the same month, he was elected Master of his old
CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
college,
Corpus ChristiCorpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable for being the only college to have been founded by Cambridge townspeople, having been established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...
, and took up the post in October.
He resigned from the post of Master of Corpus Christi on 1 May 2007, after only seven months in post.
In September, 2007, he joined
University College LondonUniversity College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...
to serve as Professor of Urban and Regional Systems at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).