Prof Geoffrey Boulton

Organisation

University of Edinburgh

Job title

Biography

Geoffrey Boulton is Regius Professor Emeritus of Geology at the University of Edinburgh and a former Vice Principal of the University. He is chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the University of Heidelberg, a member of the Strategic Council of the University of Geneva, President of CODATA, the ICSU body responsible for the constants of science, and president of the Scottish Association for Marine Science. Until recently, he was a member of the UK Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology, the UK's top-level science advisory body, a member of the Council of the Royal Society, chaired its Science Policy Centre and was principal author of the influential Royal Society Report on Open Science. He was chair of the Research Committee of the League of European Research Universities and author of many of its reports, such as ‘What are universities for?’ His research is in the fields of environmental geology and glaciology, and he is currently leading a major project on the Antarctic Ice Sheet. He has won many national and international awards for his research and holds honorary degrees from several UK and European universities.