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Professor Sir Alan Wilson
Room 105
90 Tottenham Court Road
London
W1T 4TJ
Appointment
- Honorary Professor
- Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
- Faculty of the Built Environment
Biography
Sir Alan Wilson FBA, FAcSS, FRS is Professor of Urban and Regional Systems in the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London. He is Chair of the Home Office Science Advisory Council and of the Lead Expert Group for the Government Office for Science Foresight Project on The Future of Cities. He writes the weekly Quaestio blog on research and interdisciplinarity.
He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds from 1991 to 2004 when he became Director-General for Higher Education in the then DfES. From 2007-2013 he was Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He is a Member of Academia Europaea, an FBA, an FAcSS and an FRS. He was knighted in 2001. His recent books include Knowledge power (2010), The science of cities and regions (2012), his five volume (edited) Urban modelling (2012) and (with Joel Dearden) Explorations in urban and regional dynamics (2015).
Research Themes
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Research Summary
Alan was responsible for the introduction of a number of model building techniques which are now in common use internationally – such as the use of ‘entropy’ in building spatial interaction models – summarised in Entropy in urban and regional modelling. He rigorously deployed accounts’ concepts in demography and economic modelling and is now working with dynamical systems theory to model the evolution of urban structure. His current research, supported by ESRC and EPSRC grants, is on the evolution of cities and the dynamics of global trade, migration, security and development aid.
For more information on research activities, please follow the link to his web page.
Teaching Summary
Interdisciplinary research methods (see Knowledge Power published by Routledge in 2010); principles of model building (see The Science of Cities and Regions, published by Springer, in 2012).
Appointments
| 2006 – 2007 | Master | Corpus Christi College | Cambridge, United Kingdom |
| 2004 – 2006 | Director-General of Higher Education | DfES, United Kingdom | |
| 2000 – 2004 | Member | Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom | |
| 2000 – 2003 | Chairman | Board of the Worldwide Universities Network, United Kingdom | |
| 1999 – 1999 | Group member | Biotechnology Cluster Group | Department for Trade and Industry, United Kingdom |
| 1998 – 2002 | Chair | Research Policy Group | Universities UK, United Kingdom |
| 1996 – 2002 | Board member | Board of Universities UK | Universities UK, United Kingdom |
| 1994 – 2000 | Chair | Advisory Committee on Document Supply | British Library, United Kingdom |
| 1994 – 1996 | Member | Northern and Yorkshire Regional Health Authority, United Kingdom | |
| 1993 – 1994 | Chairman | Complaints Review Committee | NHS, United Kingdom |
| 1991 – 1993 | Chairman | Leeds Schools' Commission, United Kingdom | |
| 1991 – 2004 | Vice-Chancellor | University of Leeds, United Kingdom | |
| 1986 – 1988 | Vice-Chairman | Environment and Planning Committee | Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom |
| 1982 – 1985 | Vice-Chairman | Dewsbury Health Authority | NHS, United Kingdom |
| 1979 – 1982 | Member | Kirklees Area Health Authority | NHS, United Kingdom |
| 1970 – 2004 | Professor of Urban and Regional Geography | University of Leeds, United Kingdom | |
| 1968 – 1970 | Assistant Director | Centre for Environmental Studies | London, United Kingdom |
| 1966 – 1967 | Head of the Mathematical Advisory Group | Ministry of Transport, United Kingdom | |
| 1964 – 1966 | Research Officer | Institute of Economics & Statistics | Oxford University, United Kingdom |
| 1961 – 1964 | Scientific Officer | Theoretical Physics Group | Rutherford Laboratory, United Kingdom |
Academic Background
| 1966 | Master of Arts | University of Cambridge | |
| 1960 | Bachelor of Arts | University of Cambridge |
