Professor Malcolm Grant – 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

Born in New Zealand in 1947, Professor Grant was awarded the LLB (1970), LLM (1973) and LLD (1986) by the University of Otago, New Zealand. Otago conferred an honorary doctorate on him in 2006. He was a member of the Law Faculty of Southampton University (1972–1986), and Professor of Law at UCL (1986–2001), before appointment as Professor of Land Economy (1991–2003) at the University of Cambridge, where he also served as Pro-Vice Chancellor (2002–2003). He is a Life Fellow of Clare College.

Professional

Professor Grant’s professional qualifications include: Barrister and Solicitor, New Zealand (1969–); Honorary Member, Royal Town Planning Institute (1993–) and Member of Council (1998–2001); Honorary Member, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (1995–) and Member of Governing Council (1997–2003); 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, elected a Bencher of Middle Temple in 2004.

Public service

Professor Grant 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 of the Standards Committee of the Greater London Authority (2000–2008) and its Chair (2004–2008). He was Chair of the Association of London Government’s Independent Panel on the Remuneration of Councillors in London (1998–2005). Professor Grant was Chair of The Russell Group of UK research universities (2006-2009).

His current public appointments include:

• British Business Ambassador (appointed by the Prime Minister, 2008)
• Member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) (2008-)
• Member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (2008-)
• Member of the Hong Kong University Grants Committee (2007-)
• Governor and Member of the Council of Management, The Ditchley Foundation (2003-)
• Governor of the Royal Institution (2006-).

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.