Geoffrey Malcolm Copland

Copland was educated at Fitzmaurice Grammar School, Bradford-on-Avon, and went up to Merton College, Oxford in 1960 to read Physics.[1] After taking a first class undergraduate degree in 1963, he remained at Merton whilst studying for his DPhil, which he completed in 1967.[2]

Following his doctorate, Copland spent two years at Yale University, before returning to the UK in 1969 to become a Researcher and Lecturer in Physics at Queen Mary College. In 1971 he joined Queen Elizabeth College as a Lecturer in Physics, a post he held until 1980. In 1981 he was made Dean of Studies at Goldsmiths College, then in 1987 he moved to become Deputy Rector at the Polytechnic of Central London (which later became the University of Westminster), becoming its Rector and Vice-Chancellor in 1996. Since 2007 he has been a consultant on higher education, and has held a range of academic and industry positions.[2]

He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1991,[2] and awarded a CBE in 2007, for services to higher education.[3] He has a main-belt asteroid 9193 Geoffreycopland, discovered on 10 March 1992 by Duncan Steel at Siding Spring Observatory, named after him.

Copland has been twice married, firstly in 1967 to Janet Mary Todd, with whom he had a son and a daughter; their marriage was dissolved in 1985, and that year Copland remarried, to Dorothy Joy Harrison.[2]