Chairs

University of Aberdeen

Graeme Simpson, formerly business analyst and business opportunities group manager with Esso Exploration and Production UK Ltd. has been appointed to the first Schlumberger chair of energy industry management; Rhona Flin, former director of research in Aberdeen's business school and offshore management centre at Robert Gordon University, has been appointed to the chair of applied psychology; David Adams, reader, has been awarded a personal chair in land economy.

Edge Hill University College

John Simons, head of the school of humanities and arts, was awarded a professorship by the academic board of the college.

South Bank University

The following have been appointed to chairs: Margaret Fletcher, director of the Craig research and investigation unit at Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, has been appointed as the UK's first professor of children's nursing; John Thieme, professor of new literature in English at the University of Hull; Deborah Madsen, reader in English and director of American studies at the University of Leicester; Caroline Gardiner, research fellow at City University in arts policy and management.

University of Kent at Canterbury

Christopher Cook, consultant psychiatrist to Canterbury and Thanet Community Healthcare NHS Trust, has been appointed professor of psychiatry at the Kent institute of medical and health studies; Stuart Harrop, former director of legal affairs for the Royal Society for the Protection and Care of Animals, has been appointed to the Sir Cyril Kleinwort chair in wildlife management law at the Durrell Institute; Geoffrey Samuel, former reader at the University of Lancaster, has been appointed professor of law.

University of Cambridge

Peter Littlewood, former head of the theoretical physics department of Lucent Technologies in New Jersey, has been appointed to the chair of physics; Geoff Horrocks, former lecturer, has been appointed professor of comparative philology; William Harris, former professor of biology at the University of California in San Diego, has been appointed professor of anatomy.

Thames Valley University

On April 15, the university presented an honorary professorship to the architect Richard Rogers in a building that he designed, the Paul Hamlyn Learning Resources Centre.

University of Central England in Birmingham

Richard Thompson, senior editor at the BBC's World Service, has been appointed visiting professor in the school of media and communication; Geoffrey Walsh, physiologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, has been appointed visiting professor in the school of podiatry.