Biotechnology: Discovering your Future Professor Sir Christopher Evans Part of the Science Year Lectures Held at The Natural History Museum, London 16th April 2002 Click on the links to learn more: • General Information on the Science Year Lecture Series • Discovering Your Future • Professor Sir Christopher Evans • Like the Lecture, want to find out more..? • Loved the Lecture, want to study more..? • Download a Transcript of the lecture (660k PDF) Discovering Your Future Professor Evans’ inspiring talk will take you through his amazing career in biotechnology, his inventions and his industrial successes. Find out about the way his discoveries (both in biotech and elsewhere) have changed the world, and wonder at the many possibilities for your own future. This lecture is not just about discovering biotechnology’s role in your future, but your future role in biotechnology. All those medical advances we will need to live longer, better and more fun lives in the future will need an innovator. Listen to Professor Evans in April 2002 and who knows what you may have come up with yourself by 2010! Professor Sir Christopher Evans Chris Evans is one of Europe’s leading biotechnology entrepreneurs. He has established 20 high quality science-based companies and has successfully floated four on the London Stock Exchange. As a commercially-driven scientist, his companies generate ideas and solutions for everyday problems. They’ve been immensely successful, and are valued at over a billion pounds. In 1996, Chris founded Merlin Biosciences, a specialised venture capital and advisory company dedicated to the biotechnology sector. He is a Professor of Biotechnology at the Universities of Exeter, Manchester, Liverpool, Bath and Imperial College. He actively supports various DTI and Government initiatives, and was awarded a Knighthood in the 2001 New Years Honours List for services to the bioscience industry. He has won numerous awards, prizes and medals for his catalogue of scientific and business achievements and enjoys gym, rugby, fly fishing and playing his Fender electric guitar. Liked the lecture? Want to find out more? The very best biotechnology education site on the web has to be biointeractive from the American Howard Hughes Medical Institute. As well as a virtual museum and ‘animation console’ (don’t get too excited, it is animations of molecular models of Drosophilia) there are "virtual labs" where you can examine heart patients and probe the nervous system all from the comfort of a personal computer Learn about the future technologies in the pipeline at how stuff will work from scienceyear.com favourite howstuffworks. For a real mind blower look up the article on disposable and recyclable mobiles. If you want to know about the past of science and industry the best place has to be the National Museum of Science and Industry otherwise known as The Science Museum (London), National Museum of Photography, Television and Film (Bradford) and the National Railway Museum (York). This site is a portal to all three websites, each of which have their own extensive online resources, including the Science Museum’s new funstuff space for games. The San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation may be a little far away in Northern California but they have a large online space where you can point and click your way through exhibitions on Robotics or DNA and have a look at their database of interviews with famous innovators. Loved the lecture? Want to study more Best place to look, as ever, is ucas.co.uk. They list 79 biotechnology courses, but there are a further 3059 general ‘biological sciences’ courses, loads of which would be relevant too. And biology isn’t the only science to be applied in industry. Computing courses, physics, maths, chemistry, the choice is endless. You just need to make sure it’s a course that’ll suit you and give you the opportunities to let you achieve your ambitions. For the really industrially minded Glasgow Caledonian University runs a course in "Biotechology, Innovation and Enterprise". And a few of the courses (such as ones run at IC, Manchester and UMIST) include a year in industry. Its also worth looking under "Applied" on the UCAS search engine (858 courses). Although this category includes stuff like "Applied theology" and "Applied music" there are also biotech style courses (like "Applied genetics" or "Applied Molecular Biology"). Not to mention courses where you can study the industrial applications of completely different science subjects such as computing and physics. But you can’t just tell what a degree is about or like from the title. Ask about industry links in departments you’re already interested in at open days. You might find that you can do work experience or take a unit in economics as part of your degree. And there are always internships to apply for during those long university summer holidays to get work experience and make those all-important connections. Something else to look out for are courses that’ll let you do units in science communication or science policy (for example Sussex, Stirling and UCL). Although you’re unlikely to make your fortune in science communication (just ask a science teacher), understanding the way science interacts with people in industry, universities, governments, law and ethics will be a real help if you do see your future in applied sciences. Search events Back