Professor John Woodward
Professor John Woodward is the Pro Vice-Chancellor International at Northumbria University. He is also Executive Lead for the North East Space Skills and Technology Centre (NESST).
John provides strategic leadership of the University’s International Strategy, including maintaining strong relationships with our transnational education partnerships, developing the international recruitment strategy, delivering an excellent international student experience on our campuses and developing strategic international research partnerships.
In 2022 John began work with Lockheed Martin Space UK and the UK Space Agency to develop NESST, a collaborative £50 million pound research and development facility that will transform the space economy of the northeast and the wider UK. His work in the space sector was acknowledged with the award of Business Person of the Year for the North East in 2024.
John has a degree in Geography from the University of Leeds, also studying for a Erasmus Year at the University of Liege, Belgium. He has an MSc from the University of Alberta, Canada and a PhD from the University of Leeds. He joined Northumbria in 2003 becoming Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Engineering & Environment in 2018, before moving to his current role in 2024.
John is a glaciologist with expertise in near-surface geophysics and is interested in the response of polar glacial environments to climate change. He has attracted £36 million of research and capital funding through his career.