Professor Sir Adrian Smith

Professor Smith was appointed Chair of Diamond Light Source in 2014. He has been both Vice-Chancellor of the University of London since 2012 and Insitute Director of The Alan Turing Institute since 2018.  Professor Smith was previously Director General of Knowledge and Innovation in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). This followed on from his appointment in 2008 as Director General of Science and Research, originally in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) before it merged with another department to form BIS.

For the previous 10 years Professor Smith was Principal of Queen Mary University of London.  Prior to being Principal of Queen Mary, Professor Smith was at Imperial College, London, where he held a number of posts over an eight-year period.  These included: Professor of Statistics, Head of Department of Mathematics, Member of the Management and Planning Group and Company Director of ICON (Imperial Consultancy). He received a knighthood in the 2011 New Year Honours list.