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 is a board member of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC), UK Research Base Funder’s Forum, Health Innovation Council and the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.  He is also a member of a number of international advisory bodies, including the Grand Challenges in Global Health Scientific Board and the Council of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise.  He chaired the Academic Careers Sub-Committee of the UKCRC and Modernising Medical Careers which reported in 2005.

More recently, at the request of the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice, he co-chaired with the Information Commissioner an independent review on the use and sharing of personal information in the public and private sectors.  In early 2010 he completed chairing an Expert Group on Science and Learning supporting the delivery of the UK Government’s Science and Society Strategy.  He received a knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to medical research.