Professor Irene Tracey, the current Warden of Merton College, has been nominated as the next Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, a University press release today confirmed.
Professor Tracey was a co-founder of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain in 1997 and a longtime researcher in neuroscience. She completed her undergraduate degree and doctorate at Merton College, where she became the second female Warden in 2017. She has made public appearances in television and radio to promote the public understanding of science.
The current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, said of the nomination that Professor Tracey “will bring deep-seated familiarity with the collegiate university as well as enthusiasm for its values to the role of Vice-Chancellor. Irene’s talents, collegiality and boundless energy will stand her in good stead. I wish her every success and I will do all I can to ensure a smooth transition.”
The nomination was made by the Vice-Chancellor Nominations Committee, which includes members of Oxford SU. The SU President posted that she was “pleased” to have been part of a committee which “help[ed] decide on a woman who’s incredibly progressive and whose story… is very inspiring.”
If her nomination is confirmed, Professor Tracey will become the second female Vice-Chancellor of the University in its nearly thousand-year history.