In memoriam: Dr Paul Ayris, BA, PhD, FRHist

Posted on 19th December, 2025

With great sadness, we announce the death of Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost (LCCOS: Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science) and CEO of UCL Press.

Paul dedicated the majority of his career to UCL, joining in 1997 as Deputy Librarian and quickly becoming Director of UCL Library Services. Under his leadership, Library Services went from strength to strength, developing the focus on openness and outreach that was his hallmark and implementing a major programme of investment in services that went on to include the creation of the UCL Student Centre in Bloomsbury and the UCL East Library. In 2018 he became Pro-Vice-Provost with an expanded portfolio, and his championing of Open Science in particular has been instrumental in changing approaches across the sector. It is in large part thanks to him that UCL Press is leading the way in open access publishing.

Paul was not only CEO and a champion of UCL Press, but also an author of one of its forthcoming publications. He was dedicated to the study of the English reformation church, having written his doctoral thesis on the work of the reformation archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and was looking forward to the publication of his book, Thomas Cranmer’s Register, in January.

He pursued his academic work in parallel to his role at UCL, the high standard of which was reflected in his election as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2019.

Paul also volunteered his time to a range of organisations across the sector in service of his vision of an open, accessible and publicly engaged higher education ecosystem, including as President of LIBER, the Association of European Research Libraries, and as Chair of League of European Research Universities’ Working Groups on Roadmaps for Open Access, Research Data and Open Science. He was latterly proud to serve as Chair of the LERU Group for Open Science Ambassadors.

He led a huge portfolio bringing together UCL’s libraries, museums and collections, public engagement and open science activities with great energy and enthusiasm and will be enormously missed by colleagues at UCL and globally.