PROFESSOR Irene Tracey has been appointed the next Warden of Oxford University’s Merton College.

The college’s governing body has declared its intention to elect Professor Tracey, who is currently Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Nuffield Chair of Anaesthetic Science at the university.

She will succeed Sir Martin Taylor, who retires in September 2018, after eight years in post.

Prof Tracey will be the 51st holder of the Wardenship, a position dating back to the college’s foundation in 1264. She is a Merton graduate, having taken an honours degree in biochemistry in 1989 and was awarded her DPhil in 1993.

She is the second woman to have been appointed to the role of Warden, the first being Dame Jessica Rawson, who served from 1994 to 2010.

Commenting on Prof Tracey’s election, Prof Judith Armitage, the college’s Sub-warden, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Prof Irene Tracey has agreed to take over as Warden from October 2019.

“She will continue Merton’s longstanding tradition of having an active and very successful academic at its head, in this case one who was also an undergraduate and graduate student here. With her lively involvement in the wider university and the national and international biomedical and educational community, we feel Merton will be well placed to address the increasing challenges facing higher education in the coming years.”

Prof Tracey, a highly respected neuroscientist, will serve as Warden of Merton College for an initial period of seven years, with the possibility of an extra five.