Reflections on the search for a new President

Professor Martin Humphries FMedSci, Vice President (non clinical) and Chair of the Search Committee reflects on the Academy's search for a new President. 

The election of a new leader is a significant moment in the life cycle of any organisation, but particularly a National Academy. It was therefore with some trepidation that I agreed to chair the Search Committee to oversee the election of the next President of the Academy of Medical Sciences in December 2014. The choice of President is immensely important to the identity, direction and influence of the Academy, and through it the entire biomedical community. In this context, it is worth emphasising that we have benefitted enormously from the talents of the four previous Presidents, who have collectively taken the Academy from mere brainchild in 1998 to an institution of national prominence and influence in 2015.

My sense is that the Fellowship seeks many things in their President: an outstanding scientist with a significant track record of achievement; someone who can represent diverse constituencies (including gender, ethnicity, geography and research discipline); and an inspiring leader who can demonstrate authority and influence at the highest levels of Government and elsewhere. All of these qualities must be combined with the ability to commit sufficient time and energy to the task – not easy for an honorary, unremunerated position that is usually combined with a high-profile and pressured day job (or jobs!).

I am delighted that we have found all of these qualities in Sir Robert Lechler, who combines excellence in fundamental physiology and immunology with achievements in translational and clinical research through his work on transplantation tolerance, and who has championed the population health agenda at both the Academy and elsewhere. Robert is an exceptional and influential leader, who will be able to speak with authority and impact on behalf of the biomedical science community. This quality will be particularly important given what will undoubtedly be an extremely challenging period for the sector over the next four years.

One thing that is definitely not in Robert’s favour, given the present debate around gender representation in science, is the fact that he is a man. The Search Committee embarked on the process of identifying the next President acutely aware that the four past Academy Presidents are men, and expressed at the outset a desire to work as hard as possible to identify women candidates – something echoed very much by the Fellowship. A circular sent to the entire Fellowship seeking suggestions and expressions of interest in January elicited 32 names, of which 11 were women (34%). It is worth noting that many individuals were suggested multiple times. The Committee undertook very careful review and consultation around the names suggested, from which a dozen leading candidates emerged, including four women (33%). Unfortunately, many candidates had to rule themselves out at this stage due to the pressure of other commitments. While this applied to both men and women, it is incontrovertible that the lower proportion of women in the Fellowship and wider medical science community means that our most capable women have a disproportionate number of calls on their time. A review of gender representation across all aspects of Academy business in December 2014 found that we were over-representing women by roughly two-fold on our committees and governance structures. Our new SUSTAIN programme launched last week will work with women researchers to ensure they are appropriately supported along their career trajectory to enable them to secure senior positions. Although small in number I hope that this will go some way to increasing the number of senior women availbale to take on these leadership positions.

In Robert we have elected a first class President who I am sure will lead the Academy to even greater success over the next four years. Notwithstanding that, we must continue to strive to ensure our leadership positions reflect the diversity of biomedical science talent. Speaking as an Officer, Fellow and chair of the Search Committee, I can attest to the fact that gender representation is a dominant feature of very many discussions and decisions at the Academy, and we are proud of the initiatives we have taken forward, particularly to support the next generation of women leaders. For no other reason than they were the best people for the job, all three of our current major policy projects are chaired by women: ‘Health of the public 2040’ chaired by Dame Anne Johnson; ‘Reproducibility and reliability of biomedical research’ chaired by Professor Dorothy Bishop; and ‘Team science’ chaired by Professor Anne Ridley. 

I know Robert considers improving diversity to be an important priority for his Presidency, following his work on our committee looking at women in the Academy Fellowship  and his track record at King’s College London. Under his leadership, we will continue and enhance our efforts to increase the number of women candidates and Fellows of the Academy, ramp up our work via SUSTAIN and other initiatives to support future women leaders in science, and ensure the full diversity of medical science talent is represented at the highest levels both within and outside the Academy.

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