Genetics professor confirmed in role for three years after being acting PVC since January
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, a Fellow of Darwin College and Head of the Department of Genetics at the University, has been appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and International Partnerships for three years from 1 January 2022. She has been Acting PVC for Research since 1 January this year, having taken on the role after the sudden death of Chris Abell in October 2020.
Professor Ferguson-Smith is the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics, and a molecular and developmental geneticist with a research focus on epigenetic inheritance. She and her team are internationally renowned for their contributions to understanding how chemical modifications to DNA and to chromosomes influence the regulation of developmental and physiological pathways within and across generations, with implications for health and disease. She was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 2006, made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017.
Born in the USA and raised in Glasgow, Professor Ferguson-Smith gained her first degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Glasgow. She obtained her PhD in Biology from Yale University and was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Cambridge in 1994.
Professor Ferguson-Smith has held advisory and consultancy positions for several national and international research organisations. She has been a member of MRC Strategy Board and until recently chaired the MRC Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board. She sits on the BBSRC Council and is President of the Genetics Society.