The Vice-Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture Series – Sir Mark Walport

As part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture series, the University is delighted to welcome renowned scientist, Sir Mark Walport, to deliver a keynote talk on 'The UK as a world leader in Research and Innovation: now and in the future'.  

Sir Mark is Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation, which brings together the seven Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England. UKRI became an official public body on 1 April 2018 and operates across the whole of the UK with a combined budget of more than £6 billion.

He has been a champion for science, engineering and technology in his role as Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Head of the Government Office for Science and Co-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.

As former Director of the Wellcome Trust, Sir Mark has experience running a large scale research organisation and global charitable foundation. A distinguished scientist in his own right, Sir Mark was also Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London.

Previous career highlights for Sir Mark include being a member of the India UK CEO Forum and the UK India Round Table, a member of the advisory board of Infrastructure UK and a non-executive member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research.

Before becoming GCSA, he conducted independent reviews for the UK Government on the use and sharing of personal information in the public and private sectors: ‘Data Sharing Review’ (2009); and secondary education: ‘Science and Mathematics: Secondary Education for the 21st Century’ (2010).

He received a knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to medical research and was elected as Fellow of The Royal Society in 2011.

This lecture forms part of ‘The Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture Series,’ which aims to reflect on the major social, scientific, cultural and policy issues of our time.