The University of Dundee's role in the transformation of the city is being held up as a model for Australian universities in a special Prime Minister's lecture tomorrow (24/4) in Melbourne.
Sir Philip Cohen, Director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit and the Wellcome Trust Biocentre at the University of Dundee has been invited to give the Menzies Foundation Lecture at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
The lecture, which will be delivered on the evening of April 24th is held annually to honour Sir Robert Menzies, the Prime Minister of Australia from 1939-1941 and 1949-1966.
In his lecture, entitled "How Biochemistry Can Transform an Economy", Sir Philip will chart the transformation of Dundee from the City of Jute, Jam and Journalism to the City of Biochemistry, Biomedicine and Biotechnology.
Government funding of scientific research in Australian Universities is poor in comparison to the UK and the Australians specifically invited Sir Philip to give this lecture to convince Australia's politicians that more generous funding of Biomedical Sciences can be of major economic benefit, as well as playing a key role in the development of the medicines of the future.
Some 2,000 people are now employed in life sciences research in Dundee - a 20-fold increase over the last 30 years. The number of biotechnology companies has risen from 7 to 29 since 1994.
Speaking about his invitation Sir Philip said, "It is a great honour to have been asked to give this lecture, but also a challenge, since I have never given an economics lecture before!"