Professor Richard Evans will become the fifth President of Wolfson College on September 30th 2010, when current President Dr Gordon Johnson retires.

The Governing Body of Wolfson College elected Evans, currently a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Regius Professor of Modern History and Chairman of the Faculty of History.

Evans graduated from the University of Oxford, and went on to teach at the University of Stirling, the University of East Anglia and Birkbeck College, London. Whereas most previous Regius Professors were simply chosen, Evans applied for the position and was selected by a panel.

Evans said, “I am very grateful to the Fellows for selecting me as President of Wolfson. It is a unique institution, which prides itself on its distinctively cosmopolitan, egalitarian and informal character and I look forward with enthusiasm to leading it over the next few years.”

Evans’s work concerns the social and cultural history of Germany, and he has been editor of the Journal of Contemporary History since 1998.

Johnson told Varsity, “I’m thrilled by the election of Professor Evans to succeed me in October: he brings great academic distinction to the College and valuable experience from outside Cambridge, particularly with graduate students.”