Colin Bryan Riordan CBE FLSW (born 27 July 1959) is a British academic who was formerly President and Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University from September 2012 to August 2023.

He became Professor of German at Newcastle University in 1998, later being appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in August 2005.

[6] In 2015, under his purview as Vice-Chancellor, Riordan announced that Cardiff University would launch five new flagship research centres, each focusing on a world issue.

These include resolving chronic diseases; the scarcity of water; the prevention of crime; studying big data; and creating smarter energy systems.

[8] He has published on post-war German literature and culture,[9] including editing books on the writers Jurek Becker, Uwe Johnson and Peter Schneider.