Judith Rees

Professor Judith Rees has been appointed interim director of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The Council of LSE tonight asked her to accept the post from 2 May 2011 until such time as a permanent Director can take up the office.

Professor Rees, CBE, was pro director of the School from 1998 to 2004 and is currently director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE. Her research expertise focuses on adaptation to climate change and the management of environmental risk and resources, especially water.

She has acted as an advisor to the World Bank on water privatisation, regulation and pricing and to a number of national governments on institutional design and regulation.

Professor Rees said: “It will be an honour to help steer the School during this interim period when we will have a number of major issues to deal with including the important work of the independent Woolf inquiry, the changing nature of higher education funding and the appointment process of a new, permanent Director.

“The core business of LSE is world-class research and outstanding teaching. I will do everything I can to ensure this very special institution remains in the first rank of the world’s universities. Howard Davies has been an outstanding leader in this and other respects and will be a hard act to follow.”

Peter Sutherland, Chairman of the Council of LSE, said: “Judith is an academic with a global reputation who was an enormously effective pro director. I am sure staff and students will be supportive and show our common resolve to protect and enhance this great institution.”

Howard Davies is stepping down from the post following his resignation on 3 March 2011 which was reluctantly accepted by LSE’s Council. He will remain until Professor Rees takes up the position in May.

Notes to Editors:

  1. Judith Rees is Professor of Environmental and Resources Management. She was a student at LSE, being awarded both BSc and MPhil before receiving her PhD from the University of London. She is a former head of LSE’s Department of Geography and the Environment and since 2008 has been Director of both the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy. She has been a Member of Council at the Economics and Social Research Council and chaired its Training and Development Board. She has also held senior academic positions at the University of Hull. In 2005 she was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to social science. Further details of her biography, research interests and academic publications
  2. LSE Council accepted Howard Davies’ resignation at its meeting on 3 March 2011.
  3. Lord Woolf of Barnes is undertaking an independent, external inquiry into LSE’s links with Libya and related matters. More information here
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