Dame Louise Richardson DBE is president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the philanthropic foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. Previously, she served as vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and of the University of St. Andrews. A native of Ireland, she studied history at Trinity College Dublin before gaining her PhD at Harvard University, where she spent 20 years on the faculty of the Department of Government and latterly as executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She currently sits on numerous advisory boards, while serving as a trustee of, among others, the Booker Prize Foundation and the Sutton Trust. She is also a member of the selection committee of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. A political scientist by training, Richardson is recognized internationally as an expert on terrorism whose groundbreaking study, What Terrorists Want (2006), is now considered an essential classic in the field. She lectures widely to public, professional, media, and education groups, and has served on editorial boards for several journals and presses. Richardson has been honored for the excellence of her teaching and scholarship with numerous awards, including the Centennial Medal bestowed on her in 2013 by Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The recipient of 10 honorary doctorates from universities around the world, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in June 2022 in recognition of her services to higher education.
