Master of the United College

The Master of the United College is responsible for providing strategic leadership in the overall development of the Academic Schools.  Responsibilities of the Master include:

  • line management for all Heads of Schools and the Faculty Deans
  • strategic and operational planning
  • resource allocation across Academic Schools
  • chairing promotions panels
  • overseeing academic appointments
  • academic career development

The United College refers to the Colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard, founded in 1450 and 1512 respectively, that were combined in 1747 under a single head. Find out more about the history of the University. 

Professor Ineke De Moortel

The current Master of the United College is Ineke De Moortel.

Portrait of Ineke De Moortel
Email:
master@st-andrews.ac.uk
Phone:
+44 (0)1334 46 2552

Within the University, Professor De Moortel has held a number of significant academic and leadership positions. She previously served as Director of Research and Deputy Head of School in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, contributing to the development and coordination of the School’s research portfolio. She then took on the role of Assistant Vice‑Principal (AVP) Dean of Science, supporting cross‑faculty scientific initiatives and contributing to strategic academic priorities across the sciences, before taking on the role of Master in 2022.

Ineke De Moortel is a Professor of applied mathematics (Solar Physics) in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. Ineke’s research focuses on the dynamical processes occurring in the Sun’s atmosphere, in particular coronal heating and coronal seismology. Her work investigates the behaviour and interaction of MHD waves and oscillations in 3D geometries, using observations, numerical simulations and analytical modelling. Ineke is particularly interested in developing self-consistent models of coronal heating and forward modelling (creating synthetic observations) to allow robust comparisons between theoretical and numerical results and high-resolution solar observations.

Ineke completed a master's degree in mathematics in 1997 at KULeuven (Belgium) and completed a PhD in Solar Physics in 2001 at the University of St Andrews where she subsequently remained as a postdoctoral research fellow, progressing to Reader in 2008 and later being appointed Professor of Applied Mathematics in 2013.
Professor De Moortel has also made notable contributions to the wider academic community. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015 and previously co‑chaired its Young Academy of Scotland from 2012 to 2014. In addition, she served as President of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society from 2017 to 2019 and has been a member of the editorial board of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society since 2019.