Appointment of Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Friday 22 May 2009

The University has been seeking to appoint a new Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor following the planned retirement of Professor John Turner at the end of May. The post attracted a very strong field of candidates with applicants from several countries including North America, Australia, France as well as the UK. Professor Seaton was appointed following a competitive selection process and interviews.

Professor Seaton joined the University of Surrey in September 2008 as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Development. He has held a number of senior academic leadership roles and previously held the post of Vice-Principal (Academic) at the University of Edinburgh.

Having received a first class honours degree from the University of Edinburgh he completed postgraduate study at the University of Pennsylvania. He started his career in industry with WS Atkins and BP Research before moving to Cambridge as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering. In 1997 he was appointed to a Chair at the University of Edinburgh and the following year he moved into the first of his leadership roles as Head of the School of Chemical Engineering. He was then promoted to become Head of the Division of Engineering and subsequently established and ran a cross-disciplinary research institute as Head of the Institute for Materials and Processes. On the restructure of the University into Colleges in 2004 he was appointed to the role of Dean of Undergraduate Studies within the College of Science and Engineering. On the back of the success he had in this post he has been successively appointed Assistant Principal and hereafter Vice-Principal with responsibility for taught programme development and the student experience.