A leading anatomist and forensic anthropologist, Baroness Sue Black took up the newly-created post of Pro-ViceChancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University in August 2018.
She leads on developing the University’s culture of engagement, working at local, regional, national and international levels to shape the University’s engagement strategy.
Engagement is critical to civic responsibility, high quality education and impactful research and Lancaster aspires to be a pioneer in this field.
Sue’s academic career demonstrates the importance and impact of engagement whether that be with Government, nonGovernmental agencies, the business community, investigative forces, funders, the media or the public.
She was the lead forensic anthropologist for the UK response to war crimes investigations in Kosovo and has also served in Sierra Leone, Grenada, Iraq and in Thailand following the Asian tsunami.
She has been awarded two police commendations for her work in Disaster Victim Identification training and also for helping to secure convictions against perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
Sue was awarded an OBE in 2001 and a DBE in 2016 for her services to education and forensic anthropology.
She is a fellow and President of the Royal Anthropological Institute and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Biology as well as the lifetime professor of Anatomy for the Royal Scottish Academy. Her research portfolio has secured over £22M of funding and she is the author of 14 text books and in excess of 150 peer reviewed publications. She is also the author of the best-selling book ‘All that remains’.
Sue’s major driver is embedding best practise engagement at local, regional, national and national levels which informs the university strategy. Her biggest project is Eden North amongst others which include Lancaster University’s strategic partnerships with Further and Higher Institutions in the area, Councils and businesses.