Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist who has worked on how the reproduction of cells is controlled. This process is the basis of growth and development in all living organisms. He is Director of the Francis Crick Institute in London and has served as Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, President of Rockefeller University and President of the Royal Society. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and has received the Albert Lasker Award and the Royal Society's Royal and Copley Medals. He was knighted in 1999 and received the Legion d'honneur from France in 2003 and the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan in 2018. He served for 15 years on the Council of Science and Technology, advising the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and is presently a Chief Scientific Advisor for the European Union and a trustee of the British Museum.
