Louise Richardson

Louise Mary Richardson, FRSE (born 8 June 1958) is an Irish political scientist whose specialist field is the study of terrorism. Currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and honorary fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, she formerly served as the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, and as the executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Early life and education

Richardson grew up in Tramore, one of seven children of Arthur and Julie Richardson. After attending St Angela's Secondary School, Ursuline Convent, Waterford, she studied at Trinity College, Dublin where she obtained a BA degree in History with upper second-class honours in 1980, upgraded to an MA degree in 1982.

In 1977, she received a Rotary Scholarship to study in the USA at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); this forced her take a year out of her course in Ireland, but she has described her time in the US as a "totally liberating experience". She took an MA degree in Political Science from UCLA in 1981, followed by an MA degree in Government in 1984 and PhD degree in Government in 1989 from Harvard University.