the-BA : BA Press Release - 10 October 2006

The BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) today announces the appointments of Lord May of Oxford and Dr Lisbet Rausing as Trustees.

Professor Patrick Dowling, Chair of the BA Council, said: 'The BA has recently reviewed and changed its governance arrangements, with a view to bringing wider experience and expertise at a national level to the Council of the BA, its governing body. We are delighted to welcome Lord May and Dr Rausing as members of this Council'.

The BA is a UK-wide organisation dedicated to improving the public understanding, accessibility and accountability of the sciences and engineering. It exists to create a positive social climate in which science, and the organisations dependent on it, advances with public consent and with the involvement and active support of non-scientists. To achieve this, the BA seeks to connect science with people: organising major initiatives which include the BA Festival of Science, National Science and Engineering Week and award schemes for young people.

Lord May is the immediate past-President of the Royal Society (2000 – 2005) and was Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government and Head of the Office of Science and Technology for a five-year period ending in September 2000. He has received many honours for his scientific research and holds a Professorship jointly in the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, and at Imperial College, London. He also serves as an Executive Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation, as a Trustee of the British Council and is a member of the Scientific Council for the European Research Council.

Dr Rausing is a historian and a Research Fellow of Imperial College. She was educated at UC Berkeley and Harvard, where she also taught for eight years. She has written two books as well as numerous scholarly articles. She serves on various boards and committees including the Sutton Trust (which supports innovative projects that provide educational opportunities to those from non-privileged backgrounds), the Harvard Board of Overseers and the Stockholm School of Economics. She is an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy.

ENDS

Lisa Hendry, Press Officer, the BA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7019 4946
Email: lisa.hendry@the-ba.net

Note for editors

1. The BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) is the UK's nationwide, open membership organisation that exists to advance the public understanding, accessibility and accountability of the sciences and engineering. Established in 1831, the BA organises major initiatives across the UK, including the annual BA Festival of Science, National Science and Engineering Week, programmes of regional and local events, and an extensive programme for young people in schools and colleges.

2. Lord May of Oxford OM AC KT FRS

Lord May is the immediate past-President of the Royal Society (2000 – 2005) and holds a Professorship jointly in the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, and at Imperial College, London. For a five-year period ending in September 2000, he was Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government and Head of the Office of Science and Technology.

He was awarded a Knighthood in 1996, and appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1998, both for “Services to Science”. In 2001 he was one of the first 15 Life Peers created by the “House of Lords Appointments Commission”, which was established as an independent mechanism for appointing non-party-political Peers following the removal of the voting rights of hereditary Peers. In 2002, The Queen appointed him to the Order of Merit (the fifth Australian in its 100-year history). His many honours include: the Royal Swedish Academy’s Crafoord Prize (bioscience and ecology’s equivalent of a Nobel Prize); the Swiss-Italian Balzan Prize (for “seminal contributions to [understanding] biodiversity”); and the Japanese Blue Planet Prize (“for developing fundamental tools for ecological conservation planning”).

Lord May is an Executive Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation, a Trustee of the British Council, a Board Member of the UK Sport Institute, a Foundation Trustee of the Cambridge University Gates Trust and a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council.

3. Dr Lisbet Rausing

Dr Rausing is a historian and a Research Fellow of Imperial College. She was educated at UC Berkeley and Harvard, where she also taught for eight years. She has written two books as well as numerous scholarly articles.

Dr Rausing also works as a grant maker, specialising in nature conservation and higher academic research and serves on various boards and committees, including the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund, the Harvard Board of Overseers, the Stockholm School of Economics, the Sutton Trust, the Courtauld Institute, Yad Hanadiv, Fauna and Flora International and the Institute for Philanthropy. She is an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy and is a fellow of the Linnean Society and of the Royal Historical Society.

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