A number of leading researchers supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre are among 50 prominent biomedical and health scientists elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences’ respected and influential Fellowship.
The new Fellows include Oxford BRC experts who have spearheaded the COVID-19 response, such as Professor Sarah Gilbert, who led the team developing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is now in use across the world; and Professor Martin Landray, who with Professor Peter Horby – also named as a new Fellow – has been at the forefront of the search for COVID-19 treatments, as the Chief Investigator of the RECOVERY trial.
The new Fellows have been selected for their “exceptional contributions to the advancement of medical science through innovative research discoveries and translating scientific developments into benefits for patients and the wider society”, the academy said.
Other Oxford BRC researchers elected to the Fellowship are: Graham Ogg, Professor of Dermatology in the MRC Human Immunology Unit, and Professor Heidi Johansen-Berg, Director of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging.
Professor Dame Anne Johnson, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: “I am truly delighted to welcome these 50 new Fellows to the Academy’s Fellowship, and I offer my congratulations to each of them on their exceptional contribution to biomedical and health science. The knowledge, skill and influence that each brings to the Fellowship is the Academy’s most powerful asset.
“The last year has clearly demonstrated the power and prowess of UK biomedical science, and I am proud of how many Fellows, new and old, have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 response in the UK and globally.
“Although it is hard to look beyond the pandemic right now, I want to stress how important it is that the Academy Fellowship represents the widest diversity of biomedical and health sciences. The greatest health advances rely on the findings of many types of research, and on multidisciplinary teams and cross-sector and global collaboration.”
The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy on 1 July 2021.
Other Oxford University researchers named by the academy were: Marian Knight, Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health; Rose McGready, Professor of Tropical Maternal and Child Health; Anna Katharina Simon, Professor of Immunology; and Scott Waddell, Professor of Neurobiology and Wellcome Principal Research Fellow.
Also elected was Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, Chair of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which hosts the Oxford BRC.