Sir James Black has been University Chancellor since 1992. His links with the University of Dundee go back to the 1940s when, as a medical student at the University of St Andrews, he studied at University College Dundee.

On his graduation in 1946 he was engaged as an assistant lecturer in physiology based on the Dundee campus. In 1980 he returned to receive an honorary doctor of laws, LLD. On 29 April 1992 he was installed as third Chancellor of the University of Dundee succeeding Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and The Right honorable The Earl of Dalhousie.