Sir Francis Gerard McCormac,

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

, FSA,

FRSA 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 ...

FHEA Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

(born 1 August 1958) is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built w ...

. He is a physicist whose specialist fields are

Space physics Space physics, also known as solar-terrestrial physics or space-plasma physics, is the study of plasmas as they occur naturally in the Earth's upper atmosphere (aeronomy) and within the Solar System. As such, it encompasses a far-ranging number of ...

and

Carbon Dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

. He is a member of the advisory board of the International College for Liberal Arts at

Yamanashi Gakuin University Yamanashi Gakuin University (Japanese: 山梨学院大学, ''Yamanashi gakuin daigaku'') (YGU) is a university in Kōfu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Yamanashi Gakuin was founded in 1946. Today, it is a comprehensive educational institution that ...

in Japan. Previous roles include Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

and Vice-Chairman of

Invest Northern Ireland Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) is Northern Ireland's regional economic development agency. It is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) of the Department for the Economy (DfE). According to DETI's website it; "supports business growth and i ...

. He chaired a review of teacher employment for the Scottish Government in 2011.

Early life

He was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

on 1 August 1958, the eldest of seven children of Francis McCormac and Jean Heaney. He attended St. Kevin's Primary School on the Falls Road where his P6 teacher inspired him to develop a career in science.

Career

He graduated in Physics and Geology (1980) and obtained a PhD in Physics (1984) from

Ulster Polytechnic sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

, before becoming a post-doctoral research fellow at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. There he conducted research on the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Dynamics Explorer Dynamics Explorer ( DE-1 and DE-2 or Explorer 62 and Explorer 63) was a NASA mission, launched on 3 August 1981, and terminated on 28 February 1991. It consisted of two unmanned satellites, DE-1 and DE-2, whose purpose was to investigate the in ...

satellite program. He specialised in

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...

of the atmosphere using

Fabry–Pérot interferometer In optics, a Fabry–Pérot interferometer (FPI) or etalon is an optical cavity made from two parallel reflecting surfaces (i.e.: thin mirrors). Optical waves can pass through the optical cavity only when they are in resonance with it. It is ...

s to measure thermospheric wind speeds and temperatures to assess their relationship to the

Interplanetary Magnetic Field The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), now more commonly referred to as the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF), is the component of the solar magnetic field that is dragged out from the solar corona by the solar wind flow to fill the Solar Syst ...

. Between 1990 and 2001, he was Director of the High-Precision Carbon Dating Facility at

and a lecturer and senior lecturer in Environmental Monitoring. During this period, he founded the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork (CAF) and the Centre for the Climate, Environment and Chronology (Chrono Centre). He was a member of the Archaeology Committee of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

. He carbon dated monuments of international importance for

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage, and promoting its understanding and enjoyment. ...

and the Environment and Heritage Service including;

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

, the

Pazyryk burials The Pazyryk burials are a number of Scythian ( Saka) "The rich kurgan burials in Pazyryk, Siberia probably were those of Saka chieftains" "Analysis of the clothing, which has analogies in the complex of Saka clothes, particularly in Pazyryk, led ...

in Siberia,

Seahenge Seahenge, also known as Holme I, was a prehistoric monument located in the village of Holme-next-the-Sea, near Old Hunstanton in the English county of Norfolk. A timber circle with an upturned tree root in the centre, Seahenge, along wi ...

near Sandringham, the

Dover Bronze Age Boat The Dover Bronze Age boat is one of fewer than 20 Bronze Age boats so far found in Britain. It dates to 1575–1520 BC, which may make it one of the oldest substantially intact ''boat'' in the world (older boat finds are small fragments, some l ...

Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...

and New Grange. He became head of the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology in 1997 and Professor of Scientific Archaeology in 1998. As pro vice-chancellor (PVC) at Queen's from 2001 to 2010, he had responsibility for Academic and Financial Planning, Economic Development and External Affairs. He served on the Northern Ireland (NI) Committee of the Institute of Directors, the NI Economic Development Forum, the NI Science and Industry Panel (MATRIX) and the boards of both the NI Science Park and Business in the Community. He was a director and chair of the management board of Queen's University's commercialisation company, QUBIS. He was vice-chairman and a board member of

from 2008 to 2014. In 2010 he became principal and vice-chancellor at the University of Stirling. He chaired a review of the terms and conditions of teacher employment for the Scottish Government in 2011 and served as an external board member to oversee the merger of the Department of Employment and Learning and the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment to form the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland. He is currently Vice-Convener of Universities Scotland, a board member of the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA) and Chairman of the UCEA Scottish Committee, a member of Universities UK and a trustee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. He was Vice-Chairman of Bridge Integrated Primary School in Northern Ireland during the 1990s. McCormac was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 2017. McCormac was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

for services to education and the economy.

Among published works

* "Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the 6th and 7th centuries AD: A Chronological Framework" with Bayliss, Hines, Nielsen and Scull (2013) * "The Norfolk Bronze Age Timber Circle" with Bayliss, Groves, Baillie and Brown

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

, 402, 479, (1999) * "Science and Stonehenge: Dating

" with Bayliss and Bronk Ramsey (1998) * "Stonehenge in its Landscape" with Housley (1995) * "Austral thermospheric wind circulation and IMF orientation" with Hernandez and Smith

Journal of Geophysical Research The ''Journal of Geophysical Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. It is the flagship journal of the American Geophysical Union. It contains original research on the physical, chemical, and biological processes that contribute to the un ...

96, 5777, (1991) * "Polar cap diurnal temperature variations: Observations and Modeling" with Killeen, Burns, Meriwether, and Roble

93, 7466, (1988) * "Circulation of the polar thermosphere during geomagnetically quiet and active times as observed by Dynamics Explorer 2" with Killeen, Thayer, Hernandez, Tschan, Ponthieu and Spencer

92, 10133, (1987) * "Configuration of the high-latitude thermosphere neutral circulation for IMF By negative and positive" with Killeen, Gombosi, Hays and Spencer

Geophysical Research Letters ''Geophysical Research Letters'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal of geoscience published by the American Geophysical Union that was established in 1974. The editor-in-chief is Harihar Rajaram. Aims and scope The journal aims for ra ...

12, 155, (1985) * "The influence of the interplanetary magnetic field Y component on ion and neutral motions in the polar thermosphere" with Smith

1, 935, (1984)

References

External links

Vice-Chancellor – Gerry McCormac
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCormac, Gerry Living people Principals by university in Scotland Academics of the University of Stirling Physicists from Northern Ireland 1958 births Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Higher Education Academy University of Michigan fellows Alumni of Ulster University Academics of Queen's University Belfast Knights Bachelor