Professor Keating first came to Bristol in 1985 after graduating in physics from Oxford. He researched problems in quantum chaos under the supervision of Professor Sir Michael Berry and gained his PhD in 1989. After a period as a post-doc, he moved to Manchester as a lecturer, returning to Bristol in 1995 as a reader. For the next six years, HP Labs financed him and his research group.

He became a professor at Bristol in 1997 and Head of the Department of Mathematics in 2001. From 2004 to 2009 he was an EPSRC Senior Research Fellow, and last year served on the applied mathematics panel for the Research Assessment Exercise.

Speaking of his appointment, Professor Keating said: ‘I’ve had a long association with Bristol and look forward to continuing it in a new guise. It will be a privilege to work with so many exceptionally talented colleagues and to try and build on Guy Orpen’s outstanding record as dean.’

Professor Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor, said: ‘Jon’s academic achievements are formidable and his abilities as a leader well proven. Guy is a hard act to follow, but I have no doubt Jon will thrive in the role and take an already strong faculty forward.’