Sir Keith O’Nions graduated from University of Nottingham 1n 1966 and completed a PhD in geochemistry at University of Alberta in 1969.
He was a lecturer in geochemistry at Oxford from 1971-5, a professor at Columbia University (1975-79) and Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge (1979-95) ; followed by the return to Oxford from 1995-2000 as Head of Dept of Earth Sciences and a Fellow of St Hughs College,
From Jan 2000 to 2004 he was Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence following which he moved to the Department of Trade and Industry (later the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) to become Director General, Science and Innovation, and Chief Scientific Advisor – a position he held until 2008.
He became President and Rector of Imperial College London from 2010 to 2014.
Sir Keith has participated in a broad range of academic and technological committees including the Board of the Natural History Museum from 1995 to 2005 (Chair from 2002), the Council of Science and Technology from 1998 to 2000, Chair of Cambridge Enterprise 2014-19 and Chair of the British Geological Survey2017-25.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1983, an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (1998), a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (2001) and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2005). He has received honorary doctorates from a number of universities.
Sir Keith was knighted for services to earth sciences in the 1999 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
