Sir Mark Walport announced as new AE Cardiff Hub Steering Group Chair

Sir Mark Walport announced as new AE Cardiff Hub Steering Group Chair

Sir Mark Walport

Sir Mark Walport FRS FMedSci MAE, the UK’s Government Chief Scientific Adviser between 2013 and 2017 and the Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) from 2017 to 2020, is to be AE Cardiff’s new Steering Group Chair.

Sir John Skehel
Sir John Skehel



The announcement was made at AE Cardiff’s fifth annual steering group meeting which took place on 16th September. At the meeting, Professor Ole Petersen FRS, Director of the AE Cardiff Hub, informed that the AE Cardiff Hub Steering Group’s first Chair, Sir John Skehel FRS, would be stepping down due to other work commitments.

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Large global audience joins interactive webinar on Science Advice and COVID-19, co-organised by the AE Cardiff Hub

Large global audience joins interactive webinar on Science Advice and COVID-19, co-organised by the AE Cardiff Hub


Over 240 participants attended the live session from 36 countries which was moderated by Professor Ole Petersen, Vice-President of Academia Europaea and Director of the Cardiff AE Hub, and hosted by SAPEA.  The discussant was Sir Mark Walport, the incoming Chair of the Cardiff Hub Steering Group.

  • Ole Petersen
  • Pearl Dykstra
  • David Mair
  • Christiane Woopen
  • Ortwin Renn
  • Janusz Bujnicki
  • Tarmo Someere
  • Sir Mark Walport

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Professor Valerie O’Donnell elected member of Academia Europaea

Professor Valerie O’Donnell elected member of Academia Europaea


Val O’Donnell from Cardiff University School of Medicine has been elected in recognition of her academic excellence 


Academia Europaea has announced that 361 international scholars have been elected for membership.  Valerie O’Donnell is among those receiving the distinction. 


About Valerie O’Donnell

Professor Val O’Donnell is co-director of the Systems Immunity Research Institute, School of Medicine at Cardiff University. Her research focuses on discovery and characterisation of inflammatory bioactive lipids involved in cardiovascular disease, dementia and wound healing. 

Val O’Donnell is an editor of the open access journal FUNCTION. Her review into the potential of oral mouthwash to reduce Covid-19 transmission in the early stages of infection was the first paper published by the journal. She has recently been awarded Fellowship of The Academy of Medical Sciences.

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Sir Mark Walport and Professor Rudolph Allemann join AE Cardiff Hub Steering Group

Sir Mark Walport and Professor Rudolph Allemann join AE Cardiff Hub Steering Group

AE Cardiff is delighted to welcome two new members to its Steering Group, Sir Mark Walport and Professor Rudolph Allemann

  • Sir Mark Walport
  • Professor Rudolph Allemann


Sir Mark Walport FRS FMedSci MAE was the UK’s Government Chief Scientific Adviser between 2013 and 2017 and the Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) from 2017 to 2020. Professor Rudolph Allemann FLSW is Pro Vice-Chancellor of International and Student Recruitment at Cardiff University.

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Psychiatric face of COVID-19’: by Luca Steardo Jr, Luca Steardo MAE and Alex Verkhratsky MAE

Psychiatric face of COVID-19’: by Luca Steardo Jr, Luca Steardo MAE and Alex Verkhratsky MAE

This review highlights the importance of appropriate management of psychiatric aspects of COVID-19. The authors consider that paying insufficient attention to such issues could have serious implications for patients’ mental wellbeing.


In the review, the authors discuss the serious clinical challenges posed by COVID-19 systemic inflammation that can affect the central nervous system and aggravate mental health disorders.

  • Luca Steardo MAE
  • Alex Verkhratsky MAE

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Oleg Krishtal MAE at 75: the literary work of a famous neuroscientist has been published in English

Oleg Krishtal MAE at 75: the literary work of a famous neuroscientist has been published in English

Image from an interview with Krishtal published in Nature 424, 728, 2003


Professor Oleg Krishtal MAE, Director of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences’ Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology in Kiev, recently turned 75. Throughout a long career, Krishtal has been ‘fishing for knowledge’ with great success.






Krishtal is particularly well known for his momentous discovery in 1980 of proton-activated ion channels, which play a crucial role in pain perception. Now it is clear that acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are expressed in almost any mammalian brain neuron and participate in many important functions. He is, however, not only a very creative scientist, but also – and unusually – an author of several literary works that have won awards in Russia.

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Professor Richard Catlow MAE wins Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faraday Lectureship Prize

Professor Richard Catlow MAE wins Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faraday Lectureship Prize


Member of Academia Europaea, Professor Richard Catlow, of Cardiff University and University College London, has been awarded the prize for his contribution to physical chemistry.




The Royal Society of Chemistry‘s Faraday Lectureship Prize is awarded for exceptional contributions to physical or theoretical chemistry. Professor Catlow, who has held a joint professorial position between Cardiff and UCL since 2015, has been awarded “for the development and application of computational methods in conjunction with experiment as powerful and predictive tools in the physical chemistry of solids.”

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Hub webinar on Translational Medicine attracts a global audience

Hub webinar on Translational Medicine attracts a global audience


The Cardiff Hub has run its first webinar, on the topic of The Future of Translational Medicine. An international audience of around 300 from 28 countries participated in the live session.

The panellists, Professors Stephen Holgate, Ole Petersen and Péter Hegyi


The webinar, held 29th June 2020, was sponsored by MDPI and the Journal of Clinical Medicine. Ole Petersen, the Cardiff Hub Director, chaired a distinguished panel of speakers. 

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