Professor of Public Relations appointed by BU

10 May 2010

Tom Watson has been appointed as Professor of Public Relations in the Media School at BU achieving only the second professorial appointment in the field of public relations in the UK.

Professor Watson has a strong professional and academic research background in public relations, having started in corporate PR in 1978 before setting up a consultancy business in 1984. He gained his Doctor of Philosophy for research into the measurement of public relations activity in 1995 and was elected as chairman of the UK’s Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) for 2000-2002.

After four years in his native Australia where he was Associate Professor in Communications and Head of the School of Communication at Charles Sturt University, Dr Watson joined the Media School in January 2007 as Reader in Communications and shortly afterwards was appointed to the role of Deputy Dean (Education).

“BU has led the way in public relations education in the UK and I want to maintain that leadership and built its international reputation”, Professor Watson said. “There is a very talented team of academics here with whom I will be working on practice-based research.”

Professor Watson is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the PRCA in the UK. He is also a member of the Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation in the US and Chair of the First International History of Public Relations Conference that will be held at BU in July 2010.

The Media School

Professor of Public Relations appointed by BU