Professor Duncan Maskell has been appointed Head of the School of the Biological Sciences.
Biological science at Cambridge is second-to-none and is extremely broad in its coverage.
Professor Duncan Maskell, The Marks and Spencer Professor of Farm Animal Health, Food Science and Food Safety, has been appointed Head of the School of the Biological Sciences.
He takes up the post after nine years as the Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine.
He said that the School needed to maintain its position at the forefront of research: “Biological science at Cambridge is second-to-none and is extremely broad in its coverage.
“What we do is almost all excellent and there is great potential in it for everyone.
“If I can steer the School’s course in the next four years to maintain and improve its prominence I will be happy.”
“The School has to be forward-looking and not look back. It must lead where others follow.”
Professor Maskell has worked across the sector since studying for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Gonville and Caius College.
His interest lies in bacterial infections and his work has seen him take up roles in academia and industry, as well as setting up his own biotechnology company.
He was elected as the first Marks and Spencer Professor in 1996 before taking up the reins as Head of Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge in 2004.
What attracted him to his current role is clear.
“I have a very broad range of interests so the depth and breadth of the School is what really excites me,” said the Wolfson College Professorial Fellow.