Mark Walport is Director of the Wellcome Trust.  The Wellcome Trust funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas.  Before joining the Trust he was Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London.  His own research career focused on the immunology and genetics of rheumatic diseases. 

He has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology since 2004.  He is also a member of the India UK CEO Forum, the UK India Round Table and the advisory board of Infrastructure UK and a non-executive member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research.  He is a member of a number of international advisory bodies.

He has undertaken independent reviews for the UK Government on the use and sharing of personal information in the public and private sectors:  Data Sharing Review (2009); and secondary education:  Science and Mathematics: Secondary Education for the 21st Century (2010).

He received a knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to medical research and was elected as Fellow of The Royal Society in 2011.

Mark Walport will become the Government Chief Scientific Adviser on 1 April 2013.