Sir John Peebles Arbuthnott (8 April 1939 – 21 February 2023) was a Scottish microbiologist who was Principal of the University of Strathclyde. He succeeded Lord Wilson of Tillyorn as President of The Royal Society of Edinburgh in October 2011 and was succeeded by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell in October 2014. Arbuthnott served as Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde between 1991 and 2000, succeeding Sir Graham Hills.

Life and career

Arbuthnott was educated at Hyndland Senior Secondary School, the University of Glasgow(BSc, PhD), and Trinity College, Dublin (MA, ScD). In 1998, he was made a Knight Bachelor for services to education. In December 1997, while Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde, Arbuthnott chaired the National Review of Resource Allocation ("The Arbuthnott Report" and "the Arbuthnott Review". The principal task of the independent review was to consider how money was allocated annually to fund the 14 Scottish NHS Boards. The resulting mechanism, known as the Arbuthnott Formula, assesses key indicators of population, inequality and deprivation of the areas covered by each of the boards to allocate money. Arbuthnott was chair of the Arbuthnott Commission set up in 2004 to consider the consequences of having four separate voting systems for elections in Scotland and also different boundaries for Holyrood and Westminster constituencies. Sir John Arbuthnott died on 21 February 2023, at the age of 83.

Professional posts

Professional committee work

Professional honours

Publications