Sir David Harrison (3 May 1930 – 27 March 2023) was a British chemical engineer and academic. He was vice-chancellor of the

University of Keele Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University Coll ...

from 1979 to 1984, vice-chancellor of the University of Exeter from 1984 to 1994, master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, from 1994 to 2000, and pro-vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1997. Knights Bachelor Insignia

Harrison was educated at Bede School,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Clacton County High School Clacton County High School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in Clacton-on-Sea, in the county of Essex, England. There are over 1,700 students attending the school. It specialises in the arts and ...

and Selwyn College, Cambridge, reading natural sciences (chemistry), before receiving a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in physical chemistry. He joined the newly formed Chemical Engineering Department doing extensive research into Fluidisation which resulted in three books, all written with his close friend Prof John Davidson. He taught at Cambridge University until 1979, becoming a fellow of Selwyn in 1957 and its Senior Tutor. Harrison was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

in 1987. Outside academia, he was chairman of the Government's Advisory Committee on the safety of nuclear installations. He chaired the Councils of both Exeter and Ely Cathedrals, he was a governor of numerous schools and Director of the Salters Livery Company. Harrison was received a CBE in 1990 and was knighted in 1997. In 1962 he married Sheila Rachel Debes and they had a son and daughter and one son deceased.''HARRISON, Sir David'', Who's Who 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2011 ; online edn, Nov 2011, accessed 26 Oct 2012
/ref> Harrison died on 27 March 2023, at the age of 92. Harrison House and Harrison Drive in

Homerton College Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired in Homerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering of Protestant dissenters with origins in the seventeenth century. In 1894, the co ...

, University of Cambridge are named after Harrison, marking his service as chair of the Trustees of Homerton College until 2010 when it received its Royal Charter and became self-governing. The Harrison Building is named after him at Exeter University. The SCR at Selwyn College is named the Harrison Room after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, David 1930 births 2023 deaths People educated at Bede Grammar School for Boys Vice-chancellors of Keele University Vice-chancellors of the University of Exeter Masters of Selwyn College, Cambridge Fellows of Selwyn College, Cambridge Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor