June 28, 2012

expert reaction to appointment of Sir Mark Walport as UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor in April 2013

After the current Chief Scientific Adviser to the government Sir John Beddington announced he would be stepping down in April 2013, the cabinet office announced his successor would be Sir Mark Walport, currently Director of the Wellcome Trust.

Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said:

“The position of the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor will be hugely important over the coming years. They will have to make sure that evidence is at the heart of policy making and that science’s value to good decision making and economic growth is fully appreciated during the comprehensive spending review. I’m sure that, in Mark Walport, we have absolutely the right person for the job.”

Colin Blakemore FRS, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Oxford, said:

“Mark Walport is bright, efficient and enormously knowledgeable about science, education and innovation. But, equally important, he has great political acumen and robust independence. I can’t think of anyone better prepared to make the case for the use of science in government and for the defence of the best of British science.”