The Physiological Society was proud to award the 2022 Presidential Medal to Sir Patrick Vallance at a ceremony at the Royal Society on 2 December.
The Presidential Medal and President’s Lecture is The Society’s most prestigious award and recognises a leader in our sector. Sir Patrick is Government Chief Scientific Adviser and became an Honorary Fellow of The Physiological Society in 2020.
The Member Forum and President’s Lecture also saw The Society’s 2022 Rob Clarke Awardees, Fellows and Honorary Fellows recognised.
Following receipt of the award Sir Patrick Vallance said,
I would like to thank The Physiological Society for the award of the Presidential Medal and for the opportunity to deliver the 2022 President’s Lecture. Expertise in physiology was fundamental to the response to COVID-19 and continues to help us improve human health, treat disease and tackle global challenges.
Professor David Paterson, President of The Physiological Society 2020-22, said,
Sir Patrick is one of the UK’s most well-known and respected scientists. We were delighted when he became an Honorary Fellow a few years ago and are proud he delivered our 2022 President’s Lecture.
Sir Patrick spearheaded the UK’s response to the pandemic and has a distinguished career within government, industry and research. This award recognises his enormous contribution to science and the health of people in the UK and across the world.
Biography of Sir Patrick Vallance
Sir Patrick Vallance FRS FMedSci FRCP is Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) and National Technology Adviser (NTA). His personal research was in the area of diseases of blood vessels and endothelial biology.
Patrick was President, R&D at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from 2012 until 2017. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Medicines Discovery and Development. He joined the company in May 2006 as Head of Drug Discovery. He was a member of the GSK Board and the Corporate Executive Team. During his period as head of R&D, over 14 new medicines were approved for use worldwide, for diseases ranging from cancer to asthma and HIV.
Prior to joining GSK, he was a clinical academic, Professor of Medicine and led the Division of Medicine at UCL. He has over 20 years’ experience of basic and clinical research and was a consultant physician in the NHS. His research spanned from work on medicinal chemistry and structural biology, through to cellular work, studies in humans and use of large electronic health record databases.
He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999 and to the Royal Society in 2017. He was on the Board of the UK Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR) from 2009 to 2016. He is an Honorary Fellow at UCL and holds honorary degrees from Imperial College London, the University of Glasgow, the University of York and St George’s, University of London. He was a non-executive director and board member for UK Biobank and a non-executive board member for Genome Research Limited but stepped down in taking up the GCSA role.