Dame Nancy Rothwell

Chair and Vice Chancellor University of Manchester A former pupil of Penwortham Girls’ Grammar School, Nancy Rothwell obtained a first class degree in Physiology in 1976, a PhD in 1978 and a DSc in 1987 from the University of London. In 1984 she was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship and relocated to Manchester in 1987. Nancy was awarded a Chair in physiology in 1994, then a prestigious Medical Research Council Research Chair in 1998. She has conducted intensive research on the role of inflammation in brain disease and has served as president of the British Neuroscience Association, a council member of MRC, BBSRC and Cancer Research UK. In 2003 she won the prestigious Pfizer Research Prize, in 2004 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2005 was honoured with a Dame of the British Empire. She was recently appointed as Deputy Lieutenant for Greater Manchester, a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership. Nancy takes a strong and active interest in public communication of science and regularly gives talks to schools and the public and contributes to television, radio and press, particularly on sensitive issues in science. In 1998 she delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, televised by the BBC.

In 2016 Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell was appointed the British Science Association President.

Dame Nancy Rothwell will take up the role in September, succeeding current BSA President, Professor Dame Athene Donald.