John Stuart Archer

John Stuart Archer
CBE FRSE
Principal of Heriot-Watt University
In office
1997–2006
Preceded by Alistair MacFarlane
Succeeded by Anton Muscatelli

John Stuart Archer, CBE, FRSE, FREng (15 June 1943 – 9 December 2007) was Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Heriot-Watt University from 1997 to 2006.

Life

Archer was born in London on 15 June 1943 and went to Chiswick County Grammar School.[1] He obtained a BSc in Industrial Chemistry from City University London in 1965 and a PhD from Imperial College London.[2] In 1969 he emigrated to Canada with his wife Lesley and got a job as a Petroleum Engineer.[3] He returned to the UK in 1973, and worked in the European gas fields.[3]

He entered academia as a Reader in Petroleum Engineering at Imperial College in 1980, becoming a Professor in 1986, then head of the Department of Mineral Resources Engineering in 1987.[3] After further senior positions at Imperial College, he joined Heriot-Watt University in 1997 as Vice-Chancellor and Principal, until his retirement in July 2006.[3] He died 9 December 2007 of cancer, survived by his wife and their son and daughter.[4]

Honours and professional affiliations

Archer was awarded the CBE in 2002 for services to Higher Education.[5] He was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[3] He served as President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers for 2005–2006, which included responsibility for the World Congress in Chemical Engineering, held in Glasgow in 2005.[2] He received honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College, City University and Heriot-Watt University.[6]

References

  1. Frost's Scottish Who's Who Archived 2007-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. John Stuart Archer (accessed 7 March 2009)
  2. 1 2 The Chemical Engineer, issue 800 (Feb 2008) page 54
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Heriot-Watt Institute of Petroleum Engineering Obituary
  4. Times Higher Education 17 January 2008 Obituary by Melanie Newman
  5. The Guardian 15 June 2002
  6. Royal Society of Edinburgh Obituary


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.