| Sir James Lighthill FRS | 1964 – 1966 |
| Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites | 1966 – 1967 |
| Dr Peter Wakely FRS | 1968 – 1969 |
| Professor George Barnard | 1970 – 1971 |
| Professor Charles Coulson FRS | 1972 – 1973 |
| Sir Hermann Bondi FRS | 1974 – 1975 |
| HRH The Duke of Edinburgh | 1976 – 1977 |
| Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw | 1978 – 1979 |
| Sir Samuel Edwards FRS | 1980 – 1981 |
| Dr Peter Trier | 1982 – 1983 |
| Sir Harry Pitt FRS | 1984 – 1985 |
| Professor Bob Churchhouse FRS | 1986 – 1987 |
| Professor Douglas Jones FRS | 1988 – 1989 |
| Sir Roy Harding | 1990 – 1991 |
| Mr J H McDonnell | 1992 |
| Professor Lord Julian Hunt FRS | 1993 – 1995 |
| Professor David Crighton FRS | 1996 – 1997 |
| Professor Henry Beker | 1998 – 1999 |
| Professor Stephen Reid | 2000 – 2001 |
| Professor John McWhirter FREng, FRS | 2002 – 2003 |
| Professor Tim Pedley FRS | 2004 – 2005 |
| Professor Peter Grindrod CBE | 2006 – 2007 |
| Professor David Abrahams CBE | 2008 – 2009 |
| Professor Michael Walker OBE, FRS | 2010 – 2011 |
| Professor Robert MacKay FRS | 2012 – 2013 |
| Professor Dame Celia Hoyles | 2014 – 2015 |
| Professor Chris Linton | 2016 – 2017 |
| Professor Alistair Fitt | 2018 – 2019 |
| Professor Nira Chamberlain OBE | 2020 – 2021 |
| Professor Paul Glendinning FRSE | 2022 – 2023 |
| Professor Hannah Fry | 2024 – 2025 |
| Dr Heather Tewkesbury | 2026 – |
Other staff roles can be found in our governance section.