Abstract

Professor Christopher R. Lowe is Director of the Institute of Biotechnology in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of Trinity College, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry. The principal focus of his biotechnology research programme over the last 35 years has been the healthcare biotechnology sector. The work is characterised by not only being highly inter- and multi-disciplinary and covering aspects of biochemistry, microbiology, chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, electronics, medicine and chemical engineering, but also covering the entire range from pure science to strategic applied science, some of which has significant commercial applications. He has 340 publications, 8 books and monographs, and more than 60 patents. He has won a number of national and international prizes for his contribution to biotechnology sector and involvement in entrepreneurship. The Institute has been awarded a “Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement” and a “Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education” and he the title of “Most Entrepreneurial Scientist of the UK”. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours. He has been the driving force for the establishment of 10 spin-out companies, including ProMetic BioSciences Inc, Purely Proteins Ltd, Affinity Sensors Ltd, Cambridge Sensors Ltd, Smart Holograms Ltd, Psynova Neurotech Ltd, Paramata Ltd, Rebha Ltd, Camtech Innovations Ltd and BioJo Ltd.