Keith Burnett


Sir Keith Burnett, CBE, FRS is a British physicist and past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. Burnett announced his retirement in January 2018 and he stepped down in September of that year when he was succeeded by Koen Lamberts.

Biography

Burnett was born in Llwynypia in the Rhondda Valley. He studied Physics at Jesus College, Oxford obtaining a BA degree in 1975 then a DPhil degree in 1979. He held academic positions in Physics at the University of Colorado, Imperial College and the University of Oxford before taking up his present post on 1 October 2007. During his time at the University of Oxford he was appointed Chairman of Physics and then Head of the Division of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences. His research includes the study of Bose–Einstein condensates.

Memberships

He was Chair of the board of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association from October 2009 to September 2011.
On 1 November 2010 he was appointed as a non-executive director of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, a position he was due to hold until October 2013. However,as of Feb 2014, he is still listed on the management.
He is also currently a member of the United Kingdom government's Council for Science and Technology, and in September 2016 was elected president of the Science Council. He was appointed to the Advisory Council of Infrastructure UK in 2012 to advise the UK treasury on investments including on energy, transport, waste, flood, science, water and telecoms. In March 2015 he joined the management board of HEFCE.

Personal

He is married and has two children. His interests include the Chinese language and culture.

Honours

He was awarded the Young Medal and Prize in 1997 for his physics research and in 2001 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004 for services to physics, and knighted for services to science and higher education in the 2013 New Year Honours.