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Biography



Professor Malcolm Grant is a barrister, environmental lawyer, academic and public servant. He took up the post of President and Provost – the principal academic and administrative officer of UCL – in 2003.

ACADEMIC CAREER
  • 2006: Honorary doctorate, University of Otago (New Zealand)
  • 2002-2003: Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge
  • 1991: Fellow, Clare College, University of Cambridge
  • 1991-2003: Professor of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
  • 1986-2001: Professor of Law, UCL
  • 1986: Awarded LLD, University of Otago
  • 1972-1986: Member of Law Faculty, Southampton University
  • 1973: Awarded LLM, University of Otago
  • 1970: Awarded LLB, University of Otago

Professional

Professor Grant’s professional qualifications include: Barrister and Solicitor, New Zealand (1969–); Honorary Member, Royal Town Planning Institute (1993–); Honorary Member, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (1995–); Barrister, Middle Temple (1998–); and Honorary Life Member, New Zealand Resource Management Law Association (1999). He was elected to the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences (AcSS) in 2000 and elected a Bencher of Middle Temple in 2004.

Public service

Professor Grant was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2013 for services to higher education. He was awarded the CBE in 2003 for services to planning law and local government. He was appointed Officier dans l’Ordre de Mérite by the French Government in 2004. 

He served two terms of appointment as Chair of the Local Government Commission for England (1996–2001), and also as Chair of the Agriculture & Environment Biotechnology Commission (2000–2005), leading the provision of strategic advice to the government on the implications of biotechnology, including genetic modification, for agriculture and the environment. He was also Chair of the UK Independent Steering Board for the Public Debate on GM (2002–2003). He was the Independent Member and Chairman of the Standards Committee of the Greater London Authority (2000–2008). Professor Grant was Chair of The Russell Group of UK research universities (2006-2009). He received the World Class New Zealand Award (Science, Technology and Academia) in 2012.

University of Otago
University of Otago
Awarded Provost with an honorary doctorate in 2006. Source: Wikimedia

His current public appointments include:

  • British Business Ambassador (appointed by the Prime Minister in 2008 and reappointed in 2010)
  • Member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)  (2008-)
  • Member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (2008-2012)
  • Member of the Hong Kong University Grants Committee (2007-)
  • Governor (2002-) and Member of the Council of Management, The Ditchley Foundation (2003-2012)
  • Chair of the NHS Commissioning Board; a part-time non-executive role. The Board will, from April 2013, have responsibility for the NHS budget and allocating it in such a way as to bring about continuous improvement in the health of the population of England, and delivering the outcomes prescribed for it by a mandate published annually by the Secretary of State for Health.

To see his public service posts and appointments in full, click here.

Research

Professor Grant has researched and published widely in areas including: planning and environmental law; regulation of biotechnology; local government structures, finance and political management; central–local government relations; human rights, property and participation; and environmental dispute resolution. He was for 22 years the Editor of the British Encyclopedia of Planning Law and Practice (9 volumes, Looseleaf) and continues as Consultant Editor, as he does of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Law (6 volumes, Looseleaf).

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