Leszek Borysiewicz

On 1 October 2010 Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz became the 345th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The Vice-Chancellor is the principal academic and administrative officer of the University. He or she chairs the Council of the University, the General Board of the Faculties and the Finance Committee of the Council. He was Chief Executive of the UK's Medical Research Council from 2007, and from 2001 to 2007 was at Imperial College London, where he served as Principal of the Faculty of Medicine and later as Deputy Rector. Born in Wales, to Polish parents who settled there after the Second World War, he attended Cardiff High School and went on to the Welsh National School of Medicine, later taking up clinical and research posts in London. In 1988 he came to Cambridge as Lecturer in Medicine, and was a Fellow of Wolfson College (where he is now an Honorary Fellow). He went on to be Professor of Medicine at the University of Wales for the ten years until 2001. As Deputy Rector of Imperial College, Sir Leszek was responsible for the overall academic and scientific direction of the institution, particularly the development of inter-disciplinary research between engineering, physical sciences and biomedicine. Concurrently with his position at Imperial College, Sir Leszek was also Governor of the Wellcome Trust (2006-2007), Chairman of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration's Integrated Academic Training Awards Panel (2005-2007), and Chair of the HEFCE RAE Main Panel A Assessment Panel. Professor Borysiewicz was knighted in the 2001 New Year's Honours List for his contribution to medical education and research into developing vaccines, including work towards a vaccine to combat cervical cancer.