Follow the Crick
The Executive Management Team of The Francis Crick Institute manages its day-to-day activities. Click on the name of the Executive Team member to find out more.
Sir Paul Nurse was appointed in January 2011 following seven years as President of Rockefeller University in New York. He is also President of the Royal Society.
Before moving to the US, Paul spent more than three decades as a research scientist in the UK. His senior positions included Chair of Microbiology at the University of Oxford and Director General of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF). He played a major role in ICRF’s merger with the Cancer Research Campaign in 2002 to form Cancer Research UK — which he led as Chief Executive.
Paul, along with Tim Hunt and Lee Hartwell, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001. He also won the US Albert Lasker Award and numerous other awards and medals. His current research at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute focuses on the molecular machinery that drives cell division and controls cell shape.
John Cooper joined The Francis Crick Institute in 2009 from the Wellcome Trust where he was Director of Resources responsible for a wide range of business services including various construction and other large projects.
John is also Managing Director of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus at Hinxton and a Director of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, a joint venture between the Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline with support from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the East of England Development Agency.
Before joining the Wellcome Trust in 1999, John spent 30 years in the commercial electronics industry.
Melanie Chatfield trained and qualified as a solicitor with the City law firm Rowe & Maw, specialising in mergers and acquisitions. Since 1993 she has pursued a career as an in-house legal adviser.
Prior to joining The Francis Crick Institute in 2009, Melanie worked on a number of major development projects in the UK and overseas. Her experience in this field includes seven years with an international port developer and operator which is part of the Hong Kong based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Limited.
Amanda has more than 16 years experience as an HR professional. Before joining the Francis Crick Institute, she was HR Director for Corporate Functions at Shire Pharmaceuticals.
Amanda has worked across a variety of sectors in both permanent and interim roles and has particular expertise in large scale change projects involving transfers of staff.
Malcolm Irving is Professor of Biophysics and Director of the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King’s College London. He also chairs the Research Committee of the School of Biomedical Sciences at King’s. His main research interest is in molecular mechanisms in contraction and regulation of skeletal and cardiac muscle.
Malcolm was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2006.
Annie Kent has extensive experience at Finance Director and Deputy Vice-Chancellor level within the university and not-for-profit sectors. Before joining The Francis Crick Institute in 2009 she was Interim Director of Finance at Hertfordshire University.
She is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has a wealth of practical experience as an interim executive supporting the set-up, development and longer term viability of undertakings.
Keith Peters, who played an important part in developing the original idea for the Crick when he was interim director at the National Institute for Medical Research advises the project on clinical and translational work and innovation in the run up to the opening of the Institute.
Keith is currently a senior consultant in research and development for GSK and is a former Regius professor of medicine at Cambridge University. His expertise and experience will be a real asset to the project.
Professor Richard Catlow is Executive Dean of UCL Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences, and formerly Head of UCL Chemistry, Wolfson Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution and Director of the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory. His work explores the structures, properties and reactivities of complex materials using a combination of computer modelling and experimental techniques.
Professor Catlow’s research has led to over 800 publications, and in 2004 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society for 'pioneering the development and application of computer modeling in solid state and materials chemistry.
Andy Smith qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and has more than 25 years’ experience in the construction industry. He came to The Francis Crick Institute in 2009 having held senior positions on several major developments including the Heron Plaza projects, The Millennium Dome and the main Terminal 5 building.
Andy has significant large-scale laboratory experience gained through a six-year secondment to the SmithKline Beecham project team responsible for the New Frontiers Science Park.
Jim Smith is Director of the Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), a post he took up in 2009. He was previously Professor of Developmental Biology and Director of the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge, and before that had worked at NIMR from 1984 to 2000.
Jim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998. He was awarded the EMBO medal in 1994 and the Feldberg Foundation Award in 2000.
His current research interest is the molecular basis of mesoderm formation.
Richard Treisman is Director of the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, appointed in 2002 after three years as Director of Laboratory Research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF). He joined ICRF in 1988 from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
Richard was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1994 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000. He received the EMBO Medal in 1995 and the Louis Jeantet prize in 2002.
His current research interest is the interaction between cytoskeletal dynamics and transcriptional regulation.
Jonathan Weber is Deputy Principal (Research) and Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London. He was appointed in 1990 to establish a department studying HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
A clinician by training, his work includes fundamental research on humoral immunity in HIV infection and early phase clinical investigation of emerging antiretroviral drugs and potential HIV vaccines.
Jonathan is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. He advises WHO, UNAIDS, DfID and EU on aspects of HIV infection.
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