Sir Roderick Castle Floud FBA (born 1 April 1942) is a British

economic historian Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...

and a leader in the field of anthropometric history. He has been provost of the

London Guildhall University London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...

, vice-chancellor and president of the

London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public university, public research university in London, England. The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (f ...

, acting dean of the

School of Advanced Study The School of Advanced Study (SAS), a postgraduate institution of the University of London, is the UK's national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities and social sciences. It was established in 1994 and is ba ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, and provost of

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...

(2008–2014). He is the son of

Bernard Floud Bernard Francis Castle Floud (22 March 1915 – 10 October 1967) was a British farmer, television company executive and politician. He was the father of the economic historian Sir Roderick Floud. Early life He was born in Epsom, Surrey, the son o ...

MP.

Career

Educated at Brentwood School in Essex, Sir Roderick gained his B.A. and M.A. from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

(where he was also treasurer of the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

), attending

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

. He gained his doctorate in 1966 from

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer co ...

. Having been an assistant lecturer in economic history at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, he became a fellow, tutor and director of studies in history at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

(1969–1975).http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/archive.asp?fellowsID=2539
/ref> Between 1975 and 1988 he was the Professor of Modern History at

Birkbeck, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

, with a year as the Kratter Visiting Professor of European History and visiting professor of economics at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

(1980–1981). In 1988 he was appointed provost of the City of London Polytechnic, which in 1992 was reconstituted as

. In 2002, when London Guildhall University merged with the

University of North London The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

to become

, he became the first vice-chancellor of the new institution. He attracted controversy over the destruction of a history of London Guildhall University that he had commissioned. In 2004 he became president of London Metropolitan University, a position he held until March 2006. He was knighted in 2005. He was the acting dean of the

at the

from 1 August 2007 to 30 September 2009. On 1 September 2008, he succeeded Lord Sutherland of Houndwood as the sixth provost of

. In 2014 he retired from the college and was succeeded by Sir

Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...

. Sir Roderick Floud's interest in part-time and mature students in higher education has been reflected in his participation in numerous boards and committees. These notably include: president of

Universities UK Universities UK (UUK) is an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom. It began life in the early 20th century through informal meetings of vice-chancellors of a number of universities and principals of university colleges and ...

(2001–2003), Vice-President of the

European University Association The European University Association (EUA) represents more than 800 institutions of higher education in 48 countries, providing them with a forum for cooperation and exchange of information on higher education and research policies. Members of th ...

(2005–2007), and chair of the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences at the

European Science Foundation The European Science Foundation (ESF) is an association of 11 member organizations devoted to scientific research in 8 European countries. ESF is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation that promotes the highest quality science ...

(2007–2013).

In economic history

As well as his professional academic career, Floud is a leading

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

and

social historian Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

. He was one of the first people in Britain to apply statistics and computing to the study of economic history, and he was also a leader in the field of

anthropometric Anthropometry () refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthropology and in various atte ...

history, the study of changes in human heights and weights. His D.Phil. thesis, later published as ''The British Machine Tool Industry, 1850–1914'', made use of econometric analysis and he soon published ''An Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Historians'' and other books and articles on computing and statistics in history. In the 1970s, in association with Professor Robert Fogel in the United States, he turned to anthropometric history, publishing a number of articles and then writing (with Kenneth J. Wachter and Annabel Gregory) ''Height, Health and History: nutritional status in the United Kingdom, 1750–1980 and later'' (with Robert Fogel, Bernard Harris and Sok Chul Hong) ''The Changing Body: health, nutrition and human development in the Western World since 1700''. He latterly took up an entirely new field, the economic and social history of British gardening. His book on this topic, ''An Economic History of the English Garden'', was published by Allen Lane in November 2019. Floud has edited four editions of what is now ''The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain'', the leading university textbook on the topic. He has also published books and articles on higher education, part-time students, access to university courses and the regulation of universities.

Other positions and fellowships

* Fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

* Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

* Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

(elected 2002) * Past Master of the Guild of Educators * Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (elected 2001)List of Fellows on the ACSS website
(accessed 10 March 2015) * Fellow of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

Roderick Floud's entry on www.debretts.com
(accessed 10 March 2015)

References

External links

Article for the Guardian Newspaper
upon appointment at Gresham College.

upon appointment as the Acting Dean of the School of Advanced Study.
Article on European Universities and the state
{{DEFAULTSORT:Floud, Roderick Living people 1942 births Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the British Academy People educated at Brentwood School, Essex Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Academics of London Metropolitan University Knights Bachelor Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford