Master of the United College

The Master of the United College oversees the strategic planning of Schools in relation to academic appointments. Responsibilities of the Master include:

  • line management for all Heads of Schools and the Faculty Deans
  • strategic planning
  • 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

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 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and completed a PhD in Solar Physics in 2001 at the University of St Andrews where she remained as a postdoctoral research fellow. Ineke became Professor in Applied Mathematics in 2013.

Ineke was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015, and previously co-chaired its affiliate society, the RSE Young Academy of Scotland from 2012 to 2014. Ineke was President of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society from 2017 to 2019.