Farrar takes up post at the Wellcome Trust

Infectious disease researcher Jeremy Farrar began his job as director of the Wellcome Trust on 1 October – a role frequently referred to as the most important job in UK science.

Before joining Wellcome, Farrar was a professor of tropical medicine and global health at the University of Oxford. He has been the director of Oxford’s Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, which is supported by the Wellcome Trust and Vietnam’s government, since 1996 and serves on several advisory committees at the World Health Organization.

Farrar replaces Mark Walport, who became the government’s chief scientific adviser in February.