GSK research chief tipped as candidate for chief scientist

Patrick Vallance, president of research and development at the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, has been proposed to Downing Street as the government’s next chief scientific adviser, Research Fortnight has learnt.

Vallance’s name has been put forward by an independent panel of scientists, along with at least one other candidate with a background in the physical sciences. Prime minister Theresa May will make the final decision. 

It had been expected that the job would go to a physical scientist, as the previous two incumbents have been biologists, in the shape of medical researcher Mark Walport and his predecessor the ecologist John Beddington.