Merfyn Jones
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Professor Merfyn Jones is a historian, broadcaster, governor of the BBC and vice-chancellor of Bangor University.
He grew up and still lives in Gwynedd, Wales.
He is a prolific historian specialising in modern and contemporary Welsh history and has made numerous TV documentaries. His special interest is the history of the process of devolution (the establishing and development of the National Assembly for Wales) in Wales. He is also the author of a number of books and articles, including The North Wales Quarrymen for which he was awarded the Welsh Arts Council prize for literature, and he regularly broadcasts on the BBC and S4C.
[edit] History
He graduated at the University of Sussex and the University of Warwick. He lectured at the University of Wales, Swansea and was a lecturer, head of department and dean at the University of Liverpool. He then joined the University of Wales, Bangor in 1990 as a senior lecturer in history. He became head of the School of Welsh History there in 1993 and was appointed to the Chair in Welsh History in 1994. He then served as Dean of Arts and Social Sciences for two years before being appointed Pro-Vice Chancellor in 1998.
In 2000, he presented a 13 part television series for S4C, entitled Cymru 2000. This was a history of 20th century Wales, which featured over 200 interviews with notable figures from Wales' recent history. He was also responsible for writing the book of the same name that accompanied the series. Cymru 2000 received a BAFTA Cymru award in 2000 for "outstanding contribution to history on television". This was followed by several other television series, including 'Y Streic Fawr', 'Llafur Gwlad' and 'I'r Gad!'. On 1 January 2003 he was appointed to the Board of Governors of the BBC as BBC National Governor for Wales. He will hold that position until the end of 2006.
Following his role as acting vice-chancellor in 2003, his appointment as the sixth vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, Bangor was announced on 4 June 2004 and came into effect on 1 August 2004. He has over seen many big changes in his position at Bangor including in September 2007 the change from a University of Wales College, to a University in its own right, being renamed Bangor University.
He was also a member of the nominations committee established recently to appoint the new Director General of the BBC.
[edit] External links
- About the BBC: Professor Merfyn Jones (BBC's biography)
[edit] Other Merfyn Jones
Merfyn Jones (born 30 April 1931 in Bangor, Gwynedd) was a Welsh professional footballer who played for, among others, Scunthorpe United, Crewe Alexandra and Chester City. He famously scored one of lowly Crewe's two goals in a historic 2-2 FA Cup Fourth Round tie against Tottenham Hotspur on 30 January 1960.
