Honorary Graduates 2012 no.11 – Sir Mark Walport

Sir Mark Walport’s status as one the UK’s most accomplished medical scientists is evident in his latest appointment – as the Government’s chief science adviser.

Currently the head of biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust, Sir Mark has a long history of expertise in rheumatology and immunology.

He was born in London and went to school at St Paul’s School, London. He read Medicine at Clare College, Cambridge, before engaging in medical research in Cambridge and, later, Hammersmith in London. He became Professor of Medicine in 1991, and became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences at the Imperial College School of Medicine after the University merged with the existing medical school at the hospital in 1998.

In 2003 he was appointed Director of the Wellcome Trust, and has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology since 2004. He received his knighthood in 2009.