Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli has been Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of Glasgow since October 2009. An economist, his research interests are monetary economics, central bank independence, fiscal policy, international finance and macroeconomics. 

Sir Anton is President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, from 1 April 2025. He is a member of the University Grants Committee, Hong Kong and Chair of its Research Group.From 2017-2020 he was Chair of the Russell Group of UK research-intensive universities. He has been a member of the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisers, a special adviser to the UK House of Commons Treasury Select Committee on monetary policy and has advised the European Commission and the World Bank. He holds honorary degrees from McGill University and Nankai University.

Scotland's Got Talent: From the Enlightenment to the Present Day, How Does a Small Nation Constantly Find Itself at the Forefront of Technological and Creative Industries

Scotland has been a global reference on education since the Middle Ages, with major pushes for education in the XV century and the Scottish Reformation, and with Scottish universities being critical contributors to the Enlightenment. Today, Scotland has more top ranked universities per capita than anywhere else in the world, 5 in the top 200 (Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen). It continues being a reference in innovation and education, with examples like Edinburgh University leading AI research and robotics in the UK through School of Informatics/Bayes centre and Abertay pushing boundaries on games related education. 

In 1997, in the city of Dundee (a city with less than 150,000 people) Abertay University took a chance on a new path and launched the world’s first computing science degree. Today, it is an exemplar of industry collaboration and recognised globally as a top institution educating the next generation of the industry with several courses recognised in the top 10 of Princeton global list of games related university courses.

Scotland has given the world some of the most iconic games in existence. In a global industry that covers from entertainment to education and is at the forefront of technology, it is Scotland’s talent (we can say something about density of innovation or something like that) that really sets it apart.