Principal (office of)
The Principal and Vice-Chancellor is the most senior member of University staff.
Chronological list
1586 Robert Rollock (previously Regent)
1599 Henry Charteris
1620 Patrick Sands
1622 Robert Boyd
1623 John Adamson
1652 William Colville (did not take up office)
1653 Robert Leighton
1662 William Colvill
1675 Andrew Cant
1685 Alexander Monro
1690 Gilbert Rule
1703 William Carstares
1716 William Wishart (primus)
1730 William Hamilton
1732 James Smith
1736 William Wishart (secundus)
1754 John Gowdie
1762 William Robertson
1793 George Husband Baird
1840 John Lee
1859 Sir David Brewster
1868 Sir Alexander Grant
1885 Sir William Muir
1903 Sir William Turner
1916 Sir Alfred James Ewing
1929 Sir Thomas Henry Holland
1944 Sir John Fraser
1948 Sir Edward Victor Appleton
1965 Michael Meredith Swann
1974 Hugh Robson
1979 John Harrison Burnett
1987 Sir David Smith
1994 Sir Stewart Sutherland, Baron Sutherland of Houndwood
2002 Sir Timothy O'Shea