Wellcome Trust appoints new Director
The Wellcome Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Mark Walport as the new Director of the Trust. Professor Walport succeeds Dr Mike Dexter, who retires from the Trust at the end of March following a five-year term as Director.
Currently Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London, Professor Walport will take up his position on 1 June.
Commenting on the appointment, Sir Dominic Cadbury, Chairman of the Wellcome Trust, said:
"Mike Dexter has made an invaluable contribution to the Trust over the past five years and the appointment of Mark Walport as his successor ensures that strong and effective leadership of our affairs will be continued.
"As a former Governor, his knowledge of Trust business combined with a proven track-record in science and management makes him the ideal candidate to take on the challenges which face such a large and diverse organization."
Professor Walport said:
"I am absolutely delighted - the Wellcome Trust is a very special organization. Not only does it make huge contributions to biomedical research in the UK and internationally, it also plays an important role in supporting the medical humanities. I am looking forward enormously to leading the Trust during the coming years."
About Professor Mark Jeremy Walport
Professor Mark Jeremy Walport was born in London in 1953 and trained at Cambridge (BA, 1974, MB BChir 1977, PhD 1986), and at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. After training as a junior doctor at Hammersmith, Guy's and the Brompton Hospitals, he returned to Cambridge as an MRC Training Fellow in the MRC Mechanisms in Tumour Immunity Unit. He has been at Hammersmith Hospital since 1985, as Head of the Rheumatology Section in the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. He was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London in 1997. His clinical and research interests focus on immunology and the genetics of rheumatic diseases.
Professor Walport is Registrar of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the British Council Health Committee. He was previously a member of the Scientific Coordinating Committee of the Arthritis Research Campaign (1992-2000) and of the Council of the British Society for Rheumatology (1989-1995). He was Vice-Dean of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (1994-1997), Director of Research and Development at the Hammersmith Hospitals Trust (1994-1998), and Chairman of the Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Hospitals Research Ethics Committee (1990-1994). Professor Walport won the Roche Rheumatology Prize in 1991 and the Graham Bull Prize in Clinical Science (Royal College of Physicians) in 1996. He is a co-author of Immunobiology: the Immune System in Health and Disease and Chairman of the editorial board of the British Medical Bulletin.
Professor Walport became a Governor of the Trust in October 2000 and resigned from this position earlier this month.
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is an independent research-funding charity, established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936. It is funded from a private endowment which is managed with long-term stability and growth in mind. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health.