The late Sir Graeme Davies was Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, a post he held from 2003 to 2010, following eight years as Principal of the University of Glasgow. He was Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England from 1991 until 1995, after having been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 1986 to 1991. He was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s January 1996 Honours List for his services to higher education. Sir Graeme was Chancellor and Chairman of the British University Vietnam in Hanoi and a Board Member/ Trustee of the University of Lincoln, Regent’s University London, Taylor’s University, Kuala Lumpur and the British Institute for Technical Education, London. He held visiting professorships in New Zealand, Brazil, China, Argentina, South Africa, Israel and India. Born in New Zealand, Graeme’s tertiary education was with the School of Engineering of the University of Auckland, where he studied aeronautical engineering, and gained a PhD in materials science – and was a University of New Zealand football blue. A materials engineer by subsequent training and practice, he published widely, primarily in the fields of solidification and deformation, and was the author or co-author of eight books. He was Professor of Metallurgy and Head of Department at the University of Sheffield from 1977 to 1986, having taken up that post after sixteen years in the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science at the University of Cambridge, where he gained an MA and a ScD, and where he was also a Fellow of St Catharine’s College. Graeme was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and held honorary degrees from thirteen universities.