Nancy Rothwell

Dame Nancy Rothwell, DBE, FRS obtained a first class degree in Physiology (1976), a Ph.D (1978) and a D.Sc (1987) from the University of London. Her early research identified mechanisms of energy balance regulation, obesity and cachexia. In 1984 she was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship and relocated to Manchester three years later.

Rothwell was awarded a Chair in physiology in 1994, then a prestigious Medical Research Council Research Chair in 1998. Her current research focuses on the role of inflammation in brain disease and has identified the role of the cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) in diverse forms of brain injury. Her recent studies have begun to elucidate the mechanisms regulating IL-1 release and its action, and her group has conducted the first early clinical trial of an IL-1 inhibitor in strokes. She has recently served as president of the British Neuroscience Association and a council member of MRC.

Nancy currently oversees a research group of about 20 scientists, with significant external funding and is Vice-President for Research at the University of Manchester. She is a Trustee of Cancer Research UK, the Campaign for Medical Progress, a Council member of BBSRC, Chair of the Research Defence Society and the Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Strategy Committee, and a non-executive director of Astrazeneca.

In 2003 she won the prestigious Pfizer Research Prize, and, in 2004 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). In 2005 she was named a DBE.

Nancy Rothwell regularly gives talks to schools and the public and contributes to television, radio and press, particularly on sensitive issues in science. In 1998 she delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, televised by the BBC.

Publications

 * N. Rothwell, "Who Wants to Be a Scientist?: Choosing Science as a Career" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), ISBN 0521520924.
 * Peer-reviewed publications by Nancy Rothwell (in PubMed).