Professor Sir John Bell, FRS is Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and is also President of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
He founded the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford which was the first to focus on the genetics of common diseases. Sir John Bell then went on to lead the creation of four other clinical research institutes in Oxford. His own research on the immunogenetics of HLA, T cell receptors and autoimmune diseases has been sustained and ground breaking.
Professor Bell attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to train in medicine and undertook postgraduate training in London and at Stanford University. At Stanford he developed research interests in the area of immunology and genetics with a particular focus on characterising the molecular events associated with susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. He returned to Oxford as a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow in 1987 and was elected to the Nuffield Professorship of Clinical Medicine in Oxford in 1992. In 2002, he became the Regius Professor of Medicine.
Professor Bell sits on a wide range of advisory panels for public and private sector bodies responsible for biomedical research in Canada, Sweden, Denmark, France, Singapore and the UK. He sat on the Scientific Advisory Board for AstraZeneca from 1997 to 2000 and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Roche Palo Alto facility since 1998. He is a non-executive director of Roche AG (since 2001). He is also a founding director of three biotechnology start up companies. Professor Bell has been a member of Oxford Council of the University of Oxford and MRC Council; he is a Board Member of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration and UK Biobank and is Chairman of the Oxford Health Alliance, a private public partnership that sponsors Oxford 2020 Vision. He chairs both the Partnership Board of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and the Management Committee of the Richard Doll Building for Trials and Epidemiology in Oxford.
Welcoming his appointment, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Chairman Dame Fiona Caldicott, said: “We are really delighted to welcome Professor Sir John Bell to our Board. His experience and standing in medicine is second to none and he will perform a valuable role in helping our Trust to meet its targets and maintain its quality. His involvement will help to drive forward our ambitions to become an Academic Health Science Centre and Foundation Trust.”
The appointment has been made by the Appointments Commission’s Health and Social Care Appointments Committee in accordance with the Commission for Public Appointments Code of Practice and is effective for four years, from 1 November 2009 until 30 November 2013. Professor Sir John Bell will receive remuneration of £6,096 a year.
All Non-executive appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity and any ministerial appointments to be made public. Professor Sir John Bell has not declared any political activity in the last five years. Professor Sir John Bell currently holds an appointment with the Office for Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research which he has held since 2007. This appointment entitles him to £15,780 per annum.