Professor Keith J Morgan

APPOINTMENT: 1987 TO 1993

Professor Keith Morgan, from the University of Lancaster England, is the University’s new Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Morgan will succeeded the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Don George, following his retirement.

Professor Morganwas Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Lancaster.

Council made the appointment at a special meeting on March 7, 1986. The Council also appointed Professor Morgan to a personal Chair in Chemistry.

He had a fine record as a Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lancaster, England and also in the fields of scholarship, university management, community service and research. His knowledge and grasp of Australian higher education issues, including amalgamations, was considered remarkable in someone from overseas.

Educated at Manchester Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford, Professor Morgan holds the degrees of B.A (Class 1), BSc., M.A. and D.Phil., all form Oxford University. After a period as Senior Research Follow in the Ministry of Supply (1955-57), and as I.C.I. Research Fellow in the University of Birmingham (1957-58), he became a lecturer in the Depart mart of Chemistry in the University of Birmingham (1958-64) and then in the Department of Chemistry in the University of Lancaster (1964-65), being promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965 and subsequently appointed to a personal Chair in Chemistry at Lancaster in 1968. He was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lancaster from 1973 to 1978, and has been Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor since 1978.

Other positions held by Professor Morgan include A.E.C. Fellow at Purdue University, USA (1960-61) and Visiting Fellow at the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education (1982). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Morgan hadextensive academic and administrative experience, having been intimately involved in the strategic development of the University’s academic activities, resource allocation and research funding. He was Chairman of the University’s three companies engaged in contract research, development, teaching and consultancy. Beyond his own university, he had considerable involvement locally regionally and nationally in industrial relations – notably in the Universities’ Central Council for Admissions and the Universities’ Committee for Non-Teaching Staffs. He played an important role in the governance of a number of local educational institutions in Lancaster, as well as being Chairman of the Committee of Lancaster University Business Park and of the Chamber of Commerce-University Standing Committee.

Professor Morgan’s research interests covered a wide range of Chemistry, and he attracted substantial support from funding bodies. He is the co-author of 43 papers in learned journals, and his continuing interests in areas of vibrational spectroscopy, solvent effects, and heterocyclic ring formation.

At the time of his appointment, Professor Morgan was aged 56, married with one daughter, a university graduate.

The Vice-Principal, Professor Ken Dutton, Convener of the Selection Committee, said he had enjoyed the opportunity of accompanying Professor Morgan during the day he spent in Newcastle before meeting the Selection Committee, and on gaining some impression on Professor Morgan’s particular interests and emphases. “He made it clear to me that he believes strongly in the University’s outreach into the community”, Professor Dutton said. “I believe he sees this as part of the return to the community for putting its resources into supporting the university.

‘I am sure that he is a firm advocate of maintaining those areas in which we have built up an international reputation for excellence, while not neglecting other areas in which our contribution is less spectacular but has and important local or regional role to play”, Professor Dutton said. “He is clearly impressed by the potential of this University and greatly attracted by the opportunity of helping shape its future.”