Sir Alastair Muir Russell[1] KCB DL FRSE (born 9 January 1949) is a Scottish retired civil servant and former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, and Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland.

He took office as Principal of the University of Glasgow on 1 October 2003, but attracted much criticism for his handling of the 2006 lecturers' strike, as well as attempts to close the University's Crichton Campus in Dumfries and for receiving pay rises which were much greater than the rate of inflation.

[4] In December 2009 he was appointed to head an independent investigation[5][6] into allegations concerning the Climatic Research Unit email controversy.

However, the panel also concluded the scientists were insufficiently open about their work and unhelpful and defensive in response to freedom of information requests.

[7] Notable scholars and experts, including John Beddington and Myles Allen, welcomed the findings of the inquiry and stated that the climate scientists had been cleared of the allegations of misconduct,[8] while Patrick Michaels disagreed.