GOVERNMENT

Julia Goodfellow

Julia Goodfellow, vice-master and head of the School of Crystallography at Birkbeck College, University of London, will in January become the first female chief executive of the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Goodfellow will control annual research grants worth more than £250 million (US$370 million). She anticipates that soon more women will take top positions in the life sciences, reflecting the number who have taken up biology during the past few decades. "It's evolutionary and natural that this will happen," she says. But she's concerned that women aren't making similar advances in the physical sciences — the discipline in which she originally trained. Besides distributing the BBSRC's funds, Goodfellow sees attracting more British students into the sciences as a top priority. "In the United States, a lot of young people in science are not US nationals," she notes. She doesn't want that to be the case in Britain.

PHYSICS

Astrophysicist Jeremiah Ostriker has left Princeton for the University of Cambridge. The former Princeton provost was appointed Plumian professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy last month. The move is, in a way, a return to his roots: Ostriker was a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge. Afterwards, he joined the Princeton faculty, was promoted to full professor in 1971 and to the Young professorship in 1982. From 1979 to 1995 he chaired the department of astrophysical sciences and served as director of the Princeton University Observatory, and in 1995 he was appointed provost. Ostriker, who last autumn was awarded the US national medal of science, will continue to hold his Princeton post as Charles A. Young professor of astronomy.

Michael Allen

Michael Allen became director of the University of Warwick's new Centre for Scientific Computing this month, as well as professor of physics at the UK university. Previously, Allen was professor of physics at the University of Bristol, where he spent 16 years of his career. His research emphasis is on what he calls "molecular virtual reality" — conducting computer simulations of liquids and liquid crystals, using a range of models to investigate the link between the structure of molecules and their properties in different phases. The new centre, with its commitment to large-scale computing resources, provides a good fit for his interests. "The centre provides an exciting opportunity to bring together computational scientists from a range of disciplines, encouraging them to interact and share methods and ideas," Allen says. He sees his role shifting from focusing on his own work to fostering multidisciplinary collaborations. The centre aims to add 10 permanent positions during the next five years.

BIOTECH

Patrik Dahlén

Patrik Dahlén last month left a high-level position with instrumentation company PerkinElmer to take a top position in biotechnology. Dahlén was president of the life-sciences division at PerkinElmer, and is now chief executive of BioImage, a Copenhagen-based company that was spun off from Novo Nordisk in 1999. After Dahlén's departure, PerkinElmer reshuffled its own management, appointing John Engel executive vice-president and president of life sciences.

Rick Dyer this month left his position as head of chemical synthesis at Roche Discovery in Welwyn, UK, to become director of research and non-clinical development with Ardana Bioscience, an Edinburgh-based company focusing on reproductive health. At Roche, Dyer helped to identify 10 clinical candidates and bring three to market. Before joining Roche, Dyer spent four years at Chiroscience in Cambridge, England, where he helped build the company's finances from £3 million in venture-capital funding to a £45-million valuation on the London Stock Exchange. Dyer gained his first degree at the University of Manchester and his PhD in chemistry at the University of Southampton. He then undertook a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University. After that, Dyer returned to Britain and spent six years as a senior research chemist at Glaxo in Ware.

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION

Regis Kelly, professor and former chair of the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), assumed the university's executive vice-chancellorship this month. A cell biologist and neuroscientist, Kelly has been a member of the UCSF faculty for more than 30 years, also serving as director of the Hormone Research Institute and chair of biochemistry and biophysics. Kelly now oversees a $350-million annual research programme. He plans to increase the university's research presence in stem-cell research, human genetics and bioinformatics. He replaces Zach Hall, who plans to join EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, a new biotechnology company located in the Bay Area, as president and chief executive.