Leszek Borysiewicz

Sir Leszek K Borysiewicz, KBE, is a British physician, immunologist and scientific administrator. He is currently chief executive of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council. ^[1][2]

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Borysiewicz studied medicine at Welsh National School of Medicine and received a Ph.D from the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. He pursued a career in academic medicine at the University of Cambridge and then as a consultant at Hammersmith Hospital. He then headed the Department of Medicine at the University of Wales before joining Imperial College London, where he was promoted to Deputy Rector responsible "for the overall academic and scientific direction of the College," ^[3] In September 2007, it was reported he would succeed Colin Blakemore as the 9th head of the Medical Research Council, a national organisation that supports medical science with an annual budget of around £500 million. ^[2]

Borysiewicz research focuses on viral immunology, infectious disease, and viral-induced cancer. He has co-authored and co-edited a number of books on these subjects, including Vaccinations (ISBN 0198516274). In the 2001 New Years Honours List he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to vaccine research ^[4] In 2002 he was awarded the Moxon Trust Medal of the Royal College of Physicians. He is also a Governor of the Wellcome Trust, a council member of Cancer Research UK, a founding fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences ^[5] and co-chair of the MRC's advisory group on stem cell research. ^[2]

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