Alison Richard

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
Alison Richard
Term	2004 – present
Predecessor	Alec Broers
Born	1 March 1948 (1948-03-01) (age 59) Kent, England
Alma mater	Newnham College, Cambridge University of London

Professor^[1] Alison Fettes Richard (born 1 March 1948 in Kent, England) is the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. She is the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge since the post became executive rather than just ceremonial.

Richard was an undergraduate at Newnham College, Cambridge, before gaining a PhD at the University of London, and went on to have an academic career in Physical Anthropology with a specialisation in lemurs.

She chaired the Department of Anthropology at Yale from 1986 to 1990, and later served as director of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Following that she was Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor of the Human Environment in 1998. From 1994 until 2002, she was Provost of Yale University and was offered the post of Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge in 2003 following the end of Professor Alec Broers' seven year term.

^ Alison Richard gained her Professorship at Yale, not Cambridge, and University statutes indicate that she is not strictly entitled to use the title in office. However, this technicality is ignored and she is referred to and uses the title Professor.