Professor Sir Christopher Snowden will be Southampton university's next vice-chancellor after Professor Don Nutbeam steps down

Sir Christopher is the current President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey and President of Universities UK.

Professor Snowden succeeds Professor Don Nutbeam who has served Southampton as Vice-Chancellor since 2009.

• Ten things about Southampton University’s new vice chancellor

Professor Nutbeam (pictured below) announced last year that he would be retiring as Vice-Chancellor, allowing sufficient time to search for his successor.

Professor Snowden’s appointment, confirmed by the University of Southampton Council, follows an exhaustive search and rigorous selection process with interest from a range of extremely talented, diverse and experienced candidates from higher education and other sectors, both national and international.

He joins Southampton at a time when the university’s global reputation for research, education and enterprise continues to rise.

• Ten things about Southampton University’s new vice chancellor

With an annual turnover in excess of £500M and research income surpassing £100M year-on-year, Southampton is one of the country’s strongest universities for research, ranking 8th among all UK institutions in the recent Research Excellence Framework for research intensity.

It has also created the UK’s largest university-business collaboration with Lloyd’s Register.

Professor Snowden said: “I am honoured and delighted to be joining the University of Southampton as its vice-chancellor and look forward to building on its strong international reputation to achieve even greater success in the future.

"I am particularly excited at the prospect of leading a university which has academic strength in depth across a wide range of disciplines, with real international reach and playing such an important role nationally and regionally.”