Gerry McCormac

Gerry McCormac
Principal and Vice Chancellor of
the University of Stirling
Assumed office
1 May 2010
Preceded by Christine Hallet
Personal details
Born (1958-08-01) 1 August 1958
Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Spouse(s) Louise Gormley
Children three sons
Residence Stirling
Profession Physicist

Professor Gerry McCormac, FSA, FRSA, FHEA (born 1 August 1958) is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Stirling.[1][2] He is a physicist whose specialist fields are Space Physics and Carbon Dating.[3][4] He is a member of the advisory board of the International College for Liberal Arts[5] at Yamanashi Gakuin University in Japan. Previous roles include Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor at Queen's University Belfast[6] and Vice-Chairman of Invest Northern Ireland. He chaired a review of teacher employment for the Scottish Government in 2011.[7]

Early life

He was born in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on 1 August 1958, the eldest of seven children of Francis McCormac and Jean Heaney.[8]

Career

He graduated in Physics and Geology (1980) and obtained a PhD in Physics (1984) before becoming a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan. There he conducted research on the NASA Dynamics Explorer satellite program. He specialised in remote sensing of the atmosphere using Fabry–Pérot interferometers to measure thermospheric wind speeds and temperatures to assess their relationship to the Interplanetary Magnetic Field. Between 1990 and 2001, he was Director of the High-Precision Carbon Dating Facility at Queen's University Belfast and a lecturer and senior lecturer in Environmental Monitoring. During this period, he founded the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork (CAF)[9] and the Centre for the Climate, Environment and Chronology (Chrono Centre).[10] He was a member of the Archaeology Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. He carbon dated monuments of international importance for English Heritage, Historic Scotland and the Environment and Heritage Service including; Stonehenge, the Pazyryk burials in Siberia, Seahenge near Sandringham, the Dover Bronze Age Boat, Sutton Hoo and New Grange.

He became Head of the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology in 1997 and Professor of Scientific Archaeology in 1998. As Pro Vice-Chancellor (PVC) at Queen's from 2001 to 2010, he had responsibility for Academic and Financial Planning, Economic Development and External Affairs. He served on the Northern Ireland (NI) Committee of the Institute of Directors, the NI Economic Development Forum, the NI Science and Industry Panel (MATRIX) and the boards of both the NI Science Park and Business in the Community. He was a Director and Chair of the Management Board of Queen's University's commercialisation company, QUBIS. He was Vice-Chairman and a Board Member of Invest Northern Ireland from 2008 - 2014. In 2010 he became Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Stirling. He Chaired a review of the terms and conditions of teacher employment [11] for the Scottish Government in 2011 and served as an external board member to oversee the merger of the Department of Employment and Learning and the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment to form the Department for the Economy [12] in Northern Ireland.

He is currently Vice-Convener[13] of Universities Scotland, a Board member of the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA)[14] and Chairman of the UCEA Scottish Committee, a member of Universities UK and a trustee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. He was Vice-Chairman of Bridge Integrated Primary School in Northern Ireland during the 1990's.

Among published works

References

  1. ↑ "Professor Gerry McCormac". University of Stirling. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  2. ↑ "Belfast professor is new Stirling University principal". Daily Record. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  3. ↑ "Carbon dating and the Jersey case". BBC. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  4. ↑ "Radiocarbon Calibration". University of Oxford. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  5. ↑ "International College for Liberal Arts advisory board". Yamanashi Gakuin University. Retrieved 2016-09-18.
  6. ↑ "Professor Gerry McCormac". Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  7. ↑ "Review of Teacher Employment in Scotland". Scottish Government. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  8. ↑ "People of today: Gerry McCormac". Debrett's. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  10. ↑ "Chrono Centre". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  11. ↑ "Review of Teacher Employment, Scotland". Scottish Government. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  12. ↑ "Department for the Economy". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  13. ↑ "Professor Gerry McCormac (Vice-Convener)". Universities Scotland. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  14. ↑ "Professor Gerry McCormac, board member UCEA". UCEA. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  15. ↑ "Research Publication using NASA DE-2 satellite data". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
Academic offices
Preceded by
Christine Hallet		 Vice-chancellor of the University of Stirling
May 2010–present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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