Henry Cohen Visiting Professor – 2012

Sir Mark Walport – 2012

Mark Walport is Director of the Wellcome Trust, which is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in health by supporting the brightest minds. The Trust spends more than £600 million each year funding innovative biomedical research in the UK and internationally.

Sir Mark qualified in medicine at Clare College Cambridge (1971 to 1974) and the Middlesex Hospital (1974 to 1977). Before joining the Trust, he was Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London. His own research career focused on the immunology and genetics of rheumatic diseases.

Sir Mark was awarded the Roche Rheumatology Prize in 1991 and the Graham Bull Prize for Clinical Science (Royal College of Physicians) in 1996. He is a founder Fellow, and was the first Registrar, of the Academy of Medical Sciences and he is an Honorary Member of the American Association of Physicians. 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.

Sir Mark has served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology since 2004. He is also a member of the India-UK CEO Forum, the UK-India Round Table, the advisory board of Infrastructure UK and is a non-executive board member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research and the UK India Business Council. He is a member of a number of international advisory bodies. He has undertaken 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 chaired the Academic Careers Sub-Committee of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration and Modernising Medical Careers, which looked at all aspects of academic careers for medically qualified researchers and educationalists.

Sir Mark has been awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Sheffield, Aberdeen, King’s College London, York and Leicester and a Fellowship of Imperial College London.

An overview of Sir Mark’s year can be found here.