David Wallace (physicist)


Sir David James Wallace, CBE, FRS, FRSE, FREng is a British physicist and academic. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University from 1994 to 2005, and the Master of Churchill College, Cambridge from 2006 to 2014.

Early life and education

Wallace was born on 7 October 1945. He was educated at Hawick High School in Hawick, Borders, Scotland and went to the University of Edinburgh where he earned a degree in Mathematical Physics and a PhD in Elementary particle theory, under the supervision of Peter Higgs.

Career

After postdoctoral research work as a Harkness Fellow at Princeton University, Wallace became a physics lecturer at the University of Southampton in 1972.
In 1979 he became Tait Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Edinburgh. He won the James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize in 1980. He became Director of the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre and in 1996 he was appointed a CBE for his computing work.
Wallace is currently Vice-President for Physical Sciences of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which he was made a Fellow of in 1982. He was formerly Vice-President and Treasurer of the Royal Society and Chair of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences. From 1994 to January 2006 he was the Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University. From 2006 to 2011 he was the Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge. Wallace has also been President of the Institute of Physics and Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1998, and was a commissioner of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 from 2001-2011.
In 2014, the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Loughborough University launched a series of public lectures honouring Wallace. The Sir David Wallace lectures are hosted by the University. Speakers have included Cédric Villani and Michael Berry.

Personal

He has a wife, Elizabeth and a daughter, Sara.