Dame Angela McLean

Putting excellent science advice at the heart of decision-making – Navigating the challenges of today and tomorrow

We are delighted to announce the Seventh Geoffrey Rose Memorial Distinguished Guest Lecture will take place in-person on Monday 14 October 2024.

This the seventh in a series of lectures by distinguished guest speakers hosted by the School of Public Health in memory of Professor Geoffrey Rose, one of the foremost epidemiologists of the 20th Century.

16.00 Refreshments
16.30 Lecture
17.30 Reception

Abstract

Science advice is essential to ensuring that government policies and decisions are informed by the best available evidence and strategic long-term thinking. This is as important during peacetime as in crises. In this lecture, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean will outline her priorities and share her insights.

Speaker biography

Professor Dame Angela McLean DBE FRS is the Government Chief Scientific Adviser having taken up the role in April 2023. She is also Head of the Government Science and Engineering Profession. Prior to this Dame Angela was the Chief Scientific Adviser for the Ministry of Defence. Until April 2023, Angela McLean was a Professor of Mathematical Biology in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University and a Fellow of All Souls College. She originally undertook her PhD at Imperial College London under to the supervision of Professor Sir Roy Anderson. Her research interests lie in the use of mathematical models to aid our understanding of the evolution and spread of infectious agents.

Dame Angela is interested in the use of natural science evidence in formulating public policy and has co-developed the Oxford Martin School Restatements: an activity which restructures and presents the evidence underlying an issue of policy concern or controversy in a short, uncharged, intelligible form for non-technical audiences. She established Mathematical Biology at the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council’s Institute for Animal Health in 1994. Before this, she was a Royal Society Research Fellow at Oxford University and a Research Fellow at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

In 2009 Dame Angela was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. She was awarded the Gabor Medal in 2011 and the Weldon Memorial Prize in 2018. She received her damehood in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. In 2024 she was appointed an Honorary Distinguished Professor of Loughborough University.

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