John Skehel
The Francis Crick Institute
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Primary Section: 44, Microbial Biology Membership Type:
International Member
(elected 2014)
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Biosketch
John Skehel is a graduate of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth(1962) and gained his PhD from the University of Manchester(1966). He did research at the University of Aberdeen(1965-1968) and was a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellow at Duke University and at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Mill Hill(1968-1971). He was MRC staff scientist at NIMR from 1971 to 2006, Director of the WHO World Influenza Centre from 1975 to 1993, Head of Infections and Immunity from 1985 to 2006 and Director of the NIMR from 1987 to 2006.He is a visiting scientist in the Division of Virology at NIMR. His research is on the influenza virus haemagglutinin and neuraminidase membrane glycoproteins and the mechanisms of their receptor binding, membrane fusion and enzymic activities. He is a member of the Council of Aberystwyth University and a Trustee of the Animal Health Trust. He was elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 1983, Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984 (Vice-president 2013-2018) Member of the Academia Europaea in 1992, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998 (Vice-president 2001-2006) and Foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA in 2014. He was knighted in 1996. He was Honorary Professor of Virology at Glasgow University, Liverpool John Moores University and University College London and was awarded honorary DSc from CNAA in 1990, University College London in 2004, Liverpool John Moores University in 2007 and University of Padua (medicine and surgery) 2010. He is Fellow of the University of Wales, and Honorary Member of the Society for General Microbiology. He received the Wilhelm Feldberg Prize in 1986, the Robert Koch Prize in 1987, the Louis Jeantet Prix de Medecine in 1988,The Royal Society Leeuwenhoek Lectureship in 1990, the ICN International Prize in Virology in 1992, The Royal Society Royal Medal in 2003, the Ernst Chain Prize in 2004, the International Union of Microbiological Societies Stuart Mudd Award for Basic Microbiology in 2005, the Society for General Microbiology Marjorie Stevenson Lectureship in, 2006, Le Grand Prix de Louis D Fondation, Institut de France in 2007.
