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Professor Nigel Seaton joined Abertay University as Principal and Vice-Chancellor in 2012 and was one of Scotland's longest serving Vice-Chancellors when he stood down in 2022.
He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a first-class BSc (Honours) in Chemical Engineering in 1982 and went on to complete an MSE and PhD in the discipline at the University of Pennsylvania.
After working briefly in the oil industry, in 1989 he moved to the University of Cambridge where he was a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering and a Fellow of Clare College.
Professor Seaton spent the next seven years at Cambridge before moving to Cornell University before he took up the position of Visiting Professor.
In 1997, he returned to his alma matter, the University of Edinburgh, as Professor of Interfacial Engineering.
For the next 10 years, he held a succession of leadership posts at the institution eventually leading to his appointment as Vice-Principal.
During this time he remained active in research - his work focused on the separation and storage of gases for industrial and environmental applications, and on the design of porous materials.
In 2008, Professor Seaton moved to the University of Surrey, firstly as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and then as Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, responsible for the delivery of the University's teaching and research activities, and for internationalisation.
During his tenure at Abertay, the University grew its reputation for teaching excellence and research quality and widening access to higher education, while building a series of important collaborations with industry and forging international relationships.
Under his stewardship, Abertay was named The Times/Sunday Times UK University of the Year for Teaching Quality, ranked in the UK top ten universities for student satisfaction, became the first Scottish institution to receive the Race Equality Charter Mark and was shortlisted for The Times Higher Education University of the Year Award - just a few of the many accolades achieved in recent years.
