Dean of School, Julian Blow joins UEA as Pro Vice Chancellor Research

Julian said, “I have had a fantastic 27 years in Dundee, both professionally and personally. It has been a great honour to lead such an outstanding school which excels in all three areas of research, impact and education. I will miss all the friends and colleagues who have made my time here so happy and rewarding.”

Julian moved to Dundee in 1997 as part of the recruitment drive for the new Wellcome Trust Building that had just been built which expanded the capacity and capabilities of the then Department of Biochemistry. He had previously established his own research laboratory in 1991 at the ICRF Clare Hall Laboratories which focused on studying the signals that our cells use to control replication of their DNA, and how failures in this process can lead to diseases such as cancer. This followed his PhD from the lab of Professor Ron Laskey at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1987 and a postdoctoral fellow position with Professor Paul Nurse at the University of Oxford.

In 2012, Julian became Director of the Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression. From 2010 he also served as Associate Dean of Research. He was appointed Director of Research for the School of Life Sciences in 2014 and Dean of School in 2016. Between March 2020 and September 2021, Julian was Interim Vice-Principal (Academic Planning and Performance) and a member of the University Executive Group. Julian returned to his role as Dean in December 2021. Julian led the School through two successful Research Excellence Frameworks where the biological sciences research of the School was assessed to be the top in the UK for a University (REF 2014 and 2021).

During his time in Dundee, Julian was promoted to Professor of Chromosome Maintenance and has become a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, and Chair of the Lister Institute Scientific Advisory Committee.