Professor Mike Smith, In Memoriam

07 October 2011

Professor Mike Smith

Professor Mike Smith

Vice-Principal Professor Mike Smith passed away on Saturday October 1 while recovering from complex surgery.
He served the University in a leadership role with passion and commitment for eight years. 
Professor Mike Smith BA MA had a distinguished and varied career. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics, where he pursued postgraduate studies in Russian History. He held a Harkness Fellowship for research in Soviet Affairs at Stanford University, California and Columbia University, New York, before returning to the UK as a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he taught for five years. 
From there he moved to a Senior Lectureship at the University of Hull and subsequently became Head of the Department of European Studies. In 1993, he was appointed as the founding Director of the Institute of European Studies at Queen’s University Belfast and Professor of European Studies.
In 2003 Professor Smith took up the post of Dean of Law and Social Sciences at GCU and in 2004, the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor. 
Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Pamela Gillies says: “Mike was hugely admired in our academic community for his powerful strategic thinking, boldness and inventiveness and his ability to lead change through to successful conclusion in a fair way, taking into account many different points of view. As the architect of the University's success in the last RAE he was immensely proud of the achievement of our academic staff.”
Professor Smith is survived by his wife Lesley and their two sons. 

Vice-Principal Professor Mike Smith passed away on Saturday October 1 while recovering from complex surgery.

He served the University in a leadership role with passion and commitment for eight years. 

Professor Mike Smith BA MA had a distinguished and varied career. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics, where he pursued postgraduate studies in Russian History. He held a Harkness Fellowship for research in Soviet Affairs at Stanford University, California and Columbia University, New York, before returning to the UK as a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he taught for five years. 

From there he moved to a Senior Lectureship at the University of Hull and subsequently became Head of the Department of European Studies. In 1993, he was appointed as the founding Director of the Institute of European Studies at Queen’s University Belfast and Professor of European Studies.

In 2003 Professor Smith took up the post of Dean of Law and Social Sciences at GCU and in 2004, the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor. 

Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Pamela Gillies said: “Mike was hugely admired in our academic community for his powerful strategic thinking, boldness and inventiveness and his ability to lead change through to successful conclusion in a fair way, taking into account many different points of view. As the architect of the University's success in the last RAE he was immensely proud of the achievement of our academic staff.”

Professor Smith is survived by his wife Lesley and their two sons.

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