Sir Alan Geoffrey Wilson (born 8 January 1939) is a British mathematician and social scientist, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds and a professor at University College London.
Early life and education
Wilson was born in Bradford on 8 January 1939, and educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Darlington and the University of Cambridge where he was an undergraduate student of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and studied the Mathematical Tripos, graduating in 1960. and took up the post in October. He resigned from the post of Master of Corpus Christi on 1 May 2007, after only seven months in post.
In September, 2007, he joined University College London to serve as Professor of Urban and Regional Systems at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis He was the Chairman of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) from 2007 to 2013.
Since 2013, he has been Chair of the Home Office Science Advisory Council and Chair of the Lead Expert Group of the Government Office for Science Foresight project on the Future of Cities.
In 2016, he was appointed as Interim CEO of the Alan Turing Institute before becoming director of special projects when Adrian Smith took over. He retired as executive chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute in February 2020, having overseen the organisation's development phase, and was succeeded by Dame Wendy Hall.
In 2022, he took on a new role at the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) as the Director of Research and a Board Observer. In this role, as of 2024, he is responsible for applying his extensive experience and expertise in Interdisciplinary studies to support the institution's interdisciplinary educational and research initiatives.
Publications
- Entropy in urban and regional modelling. London: Pion, 1970. 166 p. / Russ. ed.: Вильсон А. Дж. Энтропийные методы моделирования сложных систем. – М., Наука, 1978. 248 с.
Awards and honours
Wilson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2006. He was awarded the Laureat d'Honneur by the International Geographical Union and the 2004 Prize in Regional Science by the European Regional Science Association.
Personal life
Wilson's wife's name is Sarah.Wilson was mentioned on 16 January at IRM.