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Sir Keith O’Nions
Rector
Imperial College London |
Professor Sir Keith O’Nions is Rector of Imperial College London. Before joining the College in July 2008, he was Director-General of Science and Innovation with the UK’s Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Prior to that, he was Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK’s Ministry of Defence and Director General, Science and Innovation and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Trade and Industry.
He attended the University of Nottingham and obtained his PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Alberta in 1969. Sir Keith became a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oslo in 1970 and taught at the University of Oxford from 1971 to 1975 before moving to Columbia University in 1975. In 1979, he became a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Cambridge, where he stayed till 1995, when he returned to Oxford to be Head of Earth Sciences.
Sir Keith has participated in a broad range of academic and technological committees. In 1979, he became a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 1980. Sir Keith is a Fellow of the Royal Society (1983), Honorary Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (1998), Fellow Indian National Science Academy (2001) and Honorary Fellow Royal Academy of Engineering (2005). He has also received Honorary doctorates from a number of Universities.
Sir Keith was a member of the UK Government’s Council of Science and Technology (1998-2000) and received a Knighthood for his services to Earth Sciences in 1999.
