Colin Riordan (born 27 July 1959 in

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for th ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

) is a British academic who has been President and

Vice-Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is ...

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

since 1 September 2012.

Education

Professor Riordan obtained his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

in 1986.

Career

Professor Riordan taught English as a foreign language at Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg in Germany (1982–84). He was Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in German at

Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...

from 1986 to 1998. He became Professor of German at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

in 1998, later being appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in August 2005. In October 2007 he took up the post of Vice-Chancellor at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Es ...

. On 1 September 2012 he became Vice-Chancellor of

. In 2015, under his purview as Vice-Chancellor, Professor Riordan announced that

would launch five new flagship research centres, each focusing on a world issue. These include resolving chronic diseases; the scarcity of water; the prevention of crime; studying big data; and creating smarter energy systems.

Research and publications

He has published on post-war German literature and culture, including editing books on the writers

Jurek Becker Jurek Becker (, probably 30 September 1937 – 14 March 1997) was a Polish-born German writer, screenwriter and East German dissident. His most famous novel is ''Jacob the Liar'', which has been made into two films. He lived in Łódź during Wo ...

Uwe Johnson Uwe or UWE may refer to * Uwe (given name) * University of the West of England, Bristol * UML-based web engineering * University Würzburg's Experimental miniaturized satellites for space research UWE-1 and UWE-2 * Uwe - Wreck in Blankenese Blank ...

and Peter Schneider.

Personal life

In November 2017, shortly after missing Bisexual Visibility Day, Riordan

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

as bisexual in a monthly email to staff. The

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

quoted him as saying, "Only a few vice chancellors have spoken out about being gay or lesbian and none about being bi, as far as I'm aware." He has two daughters from a former marriage.

Memberships

* Vice-president and board member 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 ...

* Board member of the

Leadership Foundation for Higher Education The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE) was an organisation in the United Kingdom providing support and advice on leadership, governance and management for higher education, based in Holborn, London. It was merged into Advance HE i ...

* Trustee, the

Edge Foundation The Edge Foundation, Inc. is an association of science and technology intellectuals created in 1988 as an outgrowth of The Reality Club. Its main activities are reflected on the edge.org website, edited by publisher and businessman John Brock ...

* Member of UK

NARIC All EU and EEA states and all the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Cyprus have a designated National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC), which provides a way to compare academic qualifications as part of the Bol ...

Advisory Council * Member of

UCAS The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS ) is a UK-based organisation whose main role is to operate the application process for British universities. It operates as an independent charity, funded by fees charged to applicants an ...

board of trustees * Board member of the Equality Challenge Unit * Chair, Universities UK International (UUKi) * Member of the International Education Council sponsored by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills * Chair of the International Policy Network of Universities UK In 2013 he became chair of Higher Education Wales, the body which represents the interests of Higher Education Institutions in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riordan, Colin Thomas Living people 1959 births Linguists from the United Kingdom Alumni of the University of Manchester People associated with Cardiff University Academics of Swansea University Academics of Newcastle University People associated with the University of Essex Vice-Chancellors by university in Wales Bisexual men People from Cardiff