Nigel Thrift

Professor Sir Nigel Thrift recently stepped down from his position as the inaugural Executive Director of Schwarzman Scholars, based in both New York and at Tsinghua University in Beijing and he is currently a Visiting Professor at Oxford University and Tsinghua University as well as an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bristol.

Before he held the Schwarzman position, Sir Nigel was the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick in the UK. Having launched an ambitious strategy for Warwick’s future, he led the University in: implementing an extensive capital plan; achieving a large increase in research income; producing high levels of philanthropic income; establishing high-profile partnerships and research collaborations, and rapidly increasing Warwick’s international profile. Sir Nigel was also instrumental in building on Warwick’s already strong links with business and industry, both nationally and internationally. Before Warwick, he was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Oxford University. He has also held positions at Bristol University, ANU, Leeds University and Cambridge University as well as visiting positions at NUS, the University of Vienna, Macquarie University, and Institutes of Advanced Study in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Sir Nigel is one of the world’s leading human geographers and social scientists. His research spans a broad range of interests, including international finance; cities and political life; non-representational theory; affective politics; and the history of time. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003. He has been a recipient of the Royal Geographical Society Heath Award, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Newbigin Prize, the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Gold Medal, and Distinguished Scholarship Honors from the Association of American Geographers. He has chaired or been a member of numerous committees involved with education policy.

He has Honorary LLDs from the University of Bristol and Monash University. He was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands in 2014. He was knighted for his services to higher education in the New Year’s Honours List 2015.