Professor Deborah Prentice became the University of Cambridge’s 347th Vice-Chancellor on July 1, 2023.

An eminent psychologist, Professor Prentice carried out her academic and administrative career at Princeton University, which she first joined in 1988. She rose through the academic ranks and took on administrative responsibilities of increasing scope, chairing the Department of Psychology for 12 years, serving as Dean of Faculty for three years, and then serving six years as Provost, with primary responsibility for all academic, budgetary, and long-term planning issues.

Her academic expertise is in the study of social norms that govern human behaviour – particularly the impact and development of unwritten rules and conventions, and how people respond to breaches of those rules. She has edited three academic volumes and published more than 50 articles and chapters, and she has specialised in the study of domestic violence, alcohol abuse and gender stereotypes.

The University Council nominated Professor Prentice for appointment as Vice-Chancellor in September 2022. Her appointment was subsequently approved by the Regent House.

Lord Smith has been the Master of Pembroke since 2015 and stepped down at the end of July 2025. He is a former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and later Chairman of the Environment Agency.

Born in 1951, Lord Smith was educated in Edinburgh and then Pembroke College, Cambridge, achieving a double first in English (and later a PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge) and was also a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard.

He began his political career as a Labour Councillor for the London Borough of Islington, becoming MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 1983. In 1992 he joined the Shadow Cabinet and held a number of frontbench posts before Labour came to power in 1997. He served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport until 2001 when he returned to the back benches, standing down from the Commons in 2005. Immediately afterwards he was made a life peer.

He chaired the Environment Agency from 2008 to 2014; from 2007 to 2017 he was also Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority.

Seb learned to row at St Paul's School, right on the Boat Race course, and grew up watching the race with his parents each year. After studying and rowing at Princeton University in the USA, Seb attended Cambridge for both a Masters and PhD in Film and Screen Studies, rowing and winning in the Cambridge Blue Boats in 2021, 2023 and 2024