John Arbuthnott

Who is John Arbuthnott?

Sir John Peebles Arbuthnott PRSE FRCPSG FMedSci FRCPath is a Scottish microbiologist, and was Principal of the University of Strathclyde. He succeeded Lord Wilson of Tillyorn as President of The Royal Society of Edinburgh in October 2011.

Arbuthnott was educated at Hyndland Senior Secondary School, Glasgow University, and Trinity College, Dublin. In 1998 he was made a Knight Bachelor for services to education.

Whilst Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Strathclyde University, Arbuthnott chaired the National Review of Resource Allocation in December 1997, the principal task of which was to conduct an independent review of the way in which NHS money is allocated annually to 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.

He 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.