Gordon Higginson

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Professor Sir Gordon Higginson was Vice-Chancellor of Southampton University for nine years, retiring in 1994. He is co-author of the standard text on hydrodynamic lubrication and the Higginson Report on A levels.

After graduating from Leeds University, Higginson worked briefly for the Ministry of Supply and was then appointed lecturer at Leeds University in 1953. In 1965 he was appointed to a Chair in Civil Engineering at the Durham University. His research interest was hydrodynamic lubrication and tribology, later extending to bio-engineering.^[1]

In the 1990s he served as chair of the engineering board of the Science and Engineering Research Council, the major grant-awarding body in UK academia.^[2]

He came to wider prominence when he chaired a committee set up to advise on the reform of the A Level system, producing the "Higginson report" into the use of technology to support learning in colleges^[3]. Despite gaining widespread approval, the report was curtly rejected by the government, but many of the detailed proposals still enjoy some currency.

He was knighted in 1990 and holds the academic titles of DL, PhD and DSc. Durham University has a lecture series named in his honour.^[4]

[edit] References

1. ^ Honorary doctoral oration, Loughborough University
2. ^ New Scientist
3. ^ Higginson report
4. ^ Higginson Lectures