Elected: 2017
Discipline: Clinical Sciences
Sir Mark Walport
Chief Executive Designate, UKRI
Sir Mark Walport spent the first part of his career as a physician scientist at Hammersmith Hospital, working on the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus. In 1997, he became Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London and has spent the rest of his career focusing on science management and policy. After a stint as a Governor of the Wellcome Trust, he became Director in 2003 and, after 10 years in this role, was appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to HM Government. As head of the Government Office for Science, Mark provided advice on science, engineering, technology and social science across many areas of government policy. He left this role in 2017 and is now Chief Executive Designate of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). He was knighted in the 2009 New Year Honours for Services to Medical Research.