Professor Mark Smith
Chair, Strategic Facilities Advisory Board
Professor Smith is the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Lancaster. He studied natural sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge before completing a PhD at the University of Warwick. After time in industry in Germany and with CSIRO in Australia, he was appointed to the University of Kent in 1992 and returned to Warwick as Reader in 1998. There he held roles within the Physics Department before being appointed Chair of the Faculty of Science in 2005, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research in 2007, and subsequently Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
His external appointments include member of the Board of the UK Research Reserve; member of Ampère Prize Committee; member of the Board of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and member of Engineering and Physical Research Council’s College since its inception, being a panel member on numerous occasions. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.
He was also a member of the UK Government Treasury/Financial Skills Council (2006-08) working group looking at issues concerning the supply of people for the wholesale financial services sector and was a member of the Russell Group Pro Vice Chancellors for Research Group.
His research interests centre on applying advanced magnetic resonance techniques to understand a range of problems in materials physics including structural problems from disordered condensed matter such as glasses and nanocrystals.
