Comment Issue 206

Comment For staff, students & friends

Issue 206 | June 2014

Re-imagining Rwanda 3

World questions | King’s answers: Four years on 4

King’s scientists win Wellcome Image Award 9

Professor Sir Rick Trainor, Principal, King’s College London 2004–14

Farewell to the Principal After 10 years of leading King’s College London, Professor Sir Rick Trainor will leave the College at the end of this academic year. He takes up a new appointment in autumn 2014 as the next Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, succeeding Frances Cairncross CBE FRSE. Professor Trainor joined King’s in 2004 as Principal and acquired the additional title of President in 2009. He is Professor of Social History; his research has focused on 19th and 20th century British elites, especially in

industrialised urban areas. He has also been heavily involved in computerbased teaching in subjects related to history, as well as in national initiatives to improve teaching more generally. Born and initially educated in the USA, Professor Trainor was an undergraduate at Brown University. He went on to become a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where he obtained his doctorate. He also has a Master’s degree in history from Princeton. In 1979 he joined Glasgow University as a lecturer, rising to become Dean of

Social Sciences and Vice-Principal. Before coming to King’s he served as Vice-Chancellor of Greenwich University for four years. Among the many posts he has held during his time at King’s, Professor Trainor was President of Universities UK (UUK) from 2007 to 2009, and has played a major role in promoting British higher education overseas. He has been a member of the US/UK Fulbright Commission and of the Arts & Humanities Research Council. In 2010 he was awarded a knighthood

in recognition of his services to higher education. During his time as Principal, King’s has advanced from 96th to 19th in the QS world rankings. In extending his gratitude to Professor Trainor for his skill and commitment in progressing the College’s interests since 2004, the Chairman of the Council of King’s, the Marquess of Douro, has described him as ‘a highly distinguished leader of the College, under whose guidance the College’s academic strengths have improved substantially.’

WWI at King’s 11