2017 has been an incredible year for Oxford, retaining its overall top position in the Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings; a unique achievement among British Universities.
This year marked the opening of the Big Data Institute; the Wellcome Centre for Ethics, Innovation, Globalisation and Medicine and the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, led by Heidi-Johansen-Berg. The refunded OUH NHS Trust Biomedical Research Centre entered a new research phase and the opening of the new Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre marked a significant expansion of our capabilities in the area of mental health and dementia.
Honours went to Roger Bannister and Simon Lovestone, among others. Nine people were conferred the title of Associate Professor along with one at full Professor. In addition, it was announced that Irene Tracey would become the next Warden of Merton College.
Brain Awareness Week is always a major event in the Oxford calendar. This year it saw the launch of the award winning Brain Diaries exhibition and event programme, started by Chris Kennard, our most comprehensive public engagement programme to date. I am very grateful everyone who’s contributions helped to make this such a success.
We significantly expanded our equality and diversity campaign through the in2ScienceUk programme, championed by Peter Magill. In addition, Dorothy Bishop was selected to take part in the Diversifying Portraiture initiative.
The successful Oxford, McGill, Zurich Partnership in the Neurosciences was renewed at a ceremony in Montreal and a major collaboration with Berlin has recently been announced.
The future offers many opportunities for Oxford Neuroscience with the continued development of the Warneford Translational Neuroscience Campus and a major project to provide state of the art facilities for Experimental Psychology.
I would like to thank each and every one of you for all your efforts over the past year and, however you will be spending the Christmas holiday, I extend my very best wishes to you and your families.