John Bell

Professor Sir John Bell is President of the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford, which combines cutting-edge research and commercial capability to drive scientific breakthroughs and create sustainable, ethical companies. In this role, Sir John leads multi-disciplinary teams to discover, develop and deploy technology in pursuit of solving humanity’s most challenging and enduring problems. Sir John served as Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford from 2002 to 2024. His extensive research interests span the areas of autoimmune disease, immunology and genetics. He was crucial in creating Genomics England, UK Biobank and Our Future Health and has advised multiple Ministers and Prime Ministers in the UK Government. He was President of the Academy of Medical Sciences from 2006 to 2011 and elected Fellow of the Royal Society and honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Holder of prominent roles during the Covid epidemic, enabling the development of the testing platforms for lateral flow tests and helping to initiate the molecular testing program nationally, Prof Bell played a major role in the development and roll out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to medicine, medical research and the life science industry. He was appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in 2023 for services to medicine, medical research, the life science industry and public health.