Vice-Chancellor

Professor Dame Glynis M. Breakwell DBE, DL

BA, MSc, MA, PhD, DSc, LLD(Hon) CPsychol, FBPsS, FRSA, AcSS

Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell DBE, DL has an international reputation as a social psychologist. She has produced more than 20 books including The Psychology of Risk (CUP) and is active as a policy adviser and researcher specialising in leadership, identity processes and risk management.

She has championed nationally the role of universities in scientific and technological innovation, exploitation and economic regeneration, and has worked over many years to widen participation in science and achieve knowledge transfer from higher education to business. In December 2011 this work was recognised when she was made a Dame in the Queen's New Year Honours for services to higher education.

She is a Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset and has had a transformational effect on ‘town and gown’ relationships and has a strong commitment to the wider community. As Chair of the Bath Festivals Trust she helped the artistic and financial regeneration of the Bath International Music Festival and the Bath Literature Festival.

Dame Glynis was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath in 2001. She has led the growth and development of the University enhancing its reputation as a world-class University for both its research and teaching. She has led the establishment of a flagship sports facility on the campus where many international and medal-winning athletes now train, not least in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Dame Glynis took her PhD from the University of Bristol and an MA and DSc from the University of Oxford where she held a Prize Fellowship at Nuffield College. In 2003, in recognition of her contribution to the social sciences, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bristol and in 2004 became an Honorary Professor at the University of Shangdong in China.

She has been a Fellow of the British Psychological Society since 1984 and is a chartered health psychologist. In 2002 she was elected an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2006 she became one of the 25 Honorary Fellows of the British Psychological Society.