Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham, today announced the appointment of Professor Douglas Kell as Chief Executive and Deputy Chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
07 July 2008
Announcing the appointment John Denham said:
"I welcome Professor Kell to the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. His academic and research background and his commercial experience, will be a great asset to the Council".
Professor Kell said:
"I am delighted to take this opportunity to lead BBSRC at what is a very exciting time for post-genomic and predictive biology and their application across the biosciences.
"The UK has a world-class bioscience research community which underpins vital sectors such as agriculture, healthcare and food production. Our aim must now be to embed new, multidisciplinary approaches to tackling the major problems where bioscience can help with solutions, and to do so in a way that not only sustains and builds on the excellence of UK bioscience research but which continues to maximise the economic and social impact of BBSRC science."
BBSRC funds the highest quality research and related postgraduate training in the biological sciences. In this financial year it is receiving around £430 million from the Science Budget.
Professor Kell will take up the post on 1 October 2008. The appointment is for four years.
Notes for editors:
1. Professor Kell's appointment has been made following an open competition.
2. Before taking up the post of BBSRC Chief Executive Douglas Kell was the Director of the Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology based in the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB). His research covers a broad range of topics from analytical chemistry to systems biology, usually coupled to biochemical and data modelling. He will continue to work at the MIB for one day a week. He was, from 1997 until 2002, Director of Research with the Institute of Biological Sciences at the University of Aberystwyth. He held a personal Chair with the University of Aberystwyth for 10 years until 2002. He is a Director of Aber Instruments Ltd.
3. Professor Kell was a BBSRC Council member for 6 years until 2006, a Strategy Board member from 2005 until 2006, a member of the Bioscience for Industry Strategy Panel from 2007 to date and chaired the review of BBSRC's Bioenergy research in 2006.
4. BBSRC promotes and supports the highest-quality basic, strategic and applied research and related postgraduate training relating to the understanding and exploitation of biological systems. It advances knowledge and technology (including the promotion and support of the exploitation of research outcomes), and provides trained scientists and engineers, to meet the needs of users and beneficiaries (including the agriculture, bioprocessing, chemical, food, healthcare, pharmaceutical and other biotechnological related industries), thereby contributing to the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom and the quality of life.
5. BBSRC is one of seven Research Councils that work together as Research Councils UK (RCUK). It is largely funded via the Science Budget by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). BBSRC's current budget is £430M. It supports a total of around 1600 scientists and 2000 research students in universities and institutes in the UK. For more information on BBSRC please see the website http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/
