professor Sir Mark wolpert is one of the most senior scientific statesmen in the
UK today as director of the Wellcome Trust he oversees a major part of our
national endeavor in medical research and is a powerful influence on the
direction of future discoveries which will affect health care for all of us
mark wall port was born and grew up in London his father was a GP who was
really a frustrated scientist mark has early memories of peering at the stars
through a homemade telescope and watching radio-controlled boats on the
local pond but his interest inclined more to the biological than the physical
sciences fascinated from a tender age by all forms of Wildlife his interest was
fired at school by a charismatic biology teacher who took him beyond the limits
of the school curriculum to learn how research worked through sophisticated
studies of fruit flies like many youngsters mark attended and was
inspired by the Royal Society Christmas lectures but he's never forgotten and
there was soon no doubt in his mind that a life in research was for him the
Cambridge mark chose to study medicine knowing that this would enable him to
root his scientific career firmly in the realities of medical practice and ensure
its relevance to human health it soon became clear that pathology would be his
love he was fortunate to undertake a vacation project with one of the mentors
who had to be so crucial in his future career mark cannot stress too strongly
the advantages of effective mentorship of young young scientists and he has
reason to be very grateful to a number of senior medical scientists who guided
him on his path to success at that time Cambridge medical students mostly came
to London for their clinical studies and mark enjoyed his clinical work at the
Middlesex Hospital he made sure to maintain contact with research including
undertaking in elective at the Karolinska Institute in
Stockholm where he first encountered one of the scientific problems that
influenced the rest of his career like all successful scientists he recognizes
the importance of choosing a good problem to work on and over the course
of his junior jobs as a doctor he kept up his research profile establishing
himself firmly in the field of immunology especially the study of
complement a component of the innate immune system his rise was steady as he
moved from London to game bridge and back again becoming professor of
medicine at imperial college and eventually chair of the division of
Medicine and briefly vice principal of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial mark
also soon showed talents in committee rooms away from the laboratory bench for
sitting on and then sharing grant awarding panels he demonstrated
effective skills of chairmanship and the ability to guide a group of independent
mind independent minded experts towards sensible funding decisions soon he was
drawn into the work of the Wellcome Trust which is the major funder of
medical research in the UK and from then it was an inexorable rise to his current
position as director he now oversees the strategy for the allocation of a
research budget of several hundred million pounds and has a large part of
the future of medical research in the UK in his hands knighted in 2009 samarth
was elected fellow of the royal society in 2011 he has also played a major role
in the Academy of Medical Sciences now a very senior scientific Statesman his
national and international profile is immense he played a huge role in shaping
the career structure for clinical medical researchers sits on the board of
the office of strategic could'a coordination of Health Research and also
works more widely having chaired the dfes working group on science and
mathematics education in schools mark has never
lost his passion for research with the publication portfolio of 180 papers 60
reviews and authorship of the major textbook on immunobiology his legacy in
the scientific literature is assured his influence on legions of other
researchers is however much more extensive he believes firmly that the
future of scientific research lies in the support of those exceptional
individuals and groups who have the skill and inspiration to push boundaries
into the unknown wherever that might be it has just been announced that mark is
to become the next government chief scientist where his experience and
scientific judgment will be invaluable in guiding major decisions which will
affect us all mark wall port is an exceptional medical scientist who both
understands research and how to develop researchers under his guidance we all
look forward to great leaps in our scientific understanding of health and
disease and the benefits that will flow to us all as doctors become better able
to manage our illnesses mr. vice chancellor on the recommendation of
senesin council i present to you professor Samar allport that you may
confer upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science
I agree cute to the degree of Doctor of Science welcome your moments many
congratulations
vice antler orator office of the university fellow graduates proud
relatives and friends this is an important day for all of us for me it's
a huge honor I've been fortunate to have a wonderful career in medicine in
medical science and now in the support of science because I have the huge
privilege of directing the Wellcome Trust and as you've just heard next year
I'll move on to the equally huge challenge of being the government chief
scientific advisor and one of my important tasks in that role will be to
bring together academia with industry and with government because it's vital
that the best policy is informed by the best evidence and it's equally important
at this time of great economic challenge that academia industry and government
come together to show the world what a knowledge-based economy can really
deliver but coming back to today I thank the University of Leicester for this
extremely generous recognition but unlike you I have not had to write any
examination papers or a thesis to get this degree you have and for you and for
your guests this is an important day because it celebrates first and foremost
a major achievement and secondly an important transition in your lives my
personal relationship with the university was cemented in 2006 when I
had the honor of giving the Frank may clinical sciences lecture and this
morning my wife and I have had the privilege of seeing some of the terrific
research that's going on in the University in a huge variety of
disciplines and in my new role I must say i looked at the astronomy and the
light technology with enormous interest but when I look at the current Wellcome
Trust portfolio of support here which amounts to well over 19 million pounds I
can immediately see both the breadth and the depth of the scholarship and
research at this university of course you have grants in the departments of
health sciences biology but you have important grants in the school of
historical sign of historical studies on the history of medical research in your
unusual and exceptional Department of Museum Studies on new perspectives of
disability in medicine and a rather interesting sounding grant in the school
of archaeology and ancient history entitled harnessing the power of the
criminal corpse the mind boggles the vision of the Wellcome Trust is to
achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health and what you
illustrate is that many disciplines from the sciences to the Medical Humanities
must work together if we're truly to understand the human condition in health
and in disease you are all graduates in biology and biological subjects and in
medicine and you graduate at a time of extraordinary opportunities in the
biological and the medical sciences the power of genome science and one hasn't
got to go very far on this campus to see the work of Sir Alec Jeffrey's and his
colleagues who have transformed the use of genetics in the social context of
Forensic Medicine for example medical and social sciences on the threshold of
realization of the power of genome science at an epic scale and the
combination of genome science with population science and the detailed
study of the environment will offer huge insights into our understanding of human
variation in health and disease but we must never lose our humanity and our
humor there is an art as well as the science of medical practice and as I was
reading about universe sting I couldn't help notice that the
oldest building on this campus the fielding Johnson building housing the
university's administration and faculty of law was opened in 1837 as the
leicestershire and rutland lunatic asylum it's nice to see a building
retaining its historical purpose turning from the past to the future there are I
think three important things that you take forward from your time at
University of Leicester the first is your education and for the medics
amongst you the importance of placing medical schools and universities is that
they first and foremost educate rather than simply train you and if you're any
doubt about the difference between education and training remember this we
want our children to have sex education but not sex training
in fact you're entering medicine at a time of amazing change and in fact
there's nothing new about this the practice of medicine was absolutely
transformed during my time as a practicing clinician by huge advances in
imaging and actually is the contribution of other subjects such as physics
engineering chemistry that make a huge difference in medicine as well of
courses our understanding of the biological sciences and the power of the
genome as for example applied to cancer the second thing you take from your time
here is the value system of a free and enlightened society of which
universities are the most powerful defenders worldwide and that is
something you must never forget and the third is the lifelong friendships that
you've made during your time at University your career paths are not
clearly mapped at this stage and I must say the best piece of mentoring that I
ever received was that careers cannot be planned and you can see that I took that
advice very seriously indeed and I would re-emphasize the importance of
mentorship talk to people and take the advice of wise people who are prepared
to look after you in a different disinterested fashion it's quite
difficult to map your career without good advice but so many things are
fascinating in biology and in medicine and the most important thing is to apply
yourself to whatever you do because we live in a most extraordinary and
fascinating universe and of course we live in an unstable environment both
physically and economically but it is actually science engineering and
technology that have shaped the modern world and will shape the future world in
which you and your children will live you're each equipped to help shake that
future and I believe that many of you can and will make important contribution
so many congratulations to all of you and to all of your friends and relatives
who have supported you and my heartfelt thank you to the University of Leicester
which I join with the greatest pleasure as one of your honorary graduates