Prof Ben Mepham receives Fellowship of the UK Society of Biology

Former EurSafe Executive Board Member Prof Ben Mepham, of the Centre for Applied Bioethics in the School of Biosciences, has been elected to a Fellowship of the Society of Biology, the leading professional body representing the learned and other organisations comprising UK biosciences.

The Society provides the Government and other policy-makers with authoritative, independent and evidence-based opinion on the full range of life sciences. Election of Fellows is limited to senior scientists ‘who have made a prominent contribution to the advancement of the biological sciences.’
Prof Mepham was formerly Director of the Centre for Applied Bioethics, University of Nottingham (and prior to that Reader in Physiology), and is currently an honorary professor at both Nottingham and Lincoln Universities. He has served on several international committees and the Government’s Biotechnology Commission, and was the first Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council.
Acknowledging the Fellowship as a personal achievement, he also believes that it represents a significant and welcome development in mainstream scientists’ attitudes to bioethics, which was formerly often marginalised but is clearly now considered to be an integral part of biology. For it is evident to all thoughtful people that the implications of scientific and technological advances for the future of life on the planet demand an urgent focus on bioethical concerns in a global contex.