Nick Lane

nick.lane@ucl.ac.uk

 

SYNOPIS

  • Provost's Venture Research Fellow, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, UCL
  • Founding member of the UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research
  • Convenor and Chair of the UCL Origin of Life group
  • Honorary Reader, UCL Medical School
  • Author and editor of books and articles
  • Regular contributor to Nature and New Scientist
  • Regular guest lecturer in universities and plenary speaker at conferences

 

WRITING AND LECTURING

  • Author of Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution (WW Norton/Profile, 2009), translated into Spanish, Portugese, Czech, Korean, Turkish, Chinese and Japanese. WINNER of the Royal Society Science Book Prize, 2010. A Book of the Year in The Times and The Independent.
  • Author of Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life (OUP, 2005), translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Czech. Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize, 2006, and the Times Higher Young Academic Author of the Year Award, 2006. An Economist Book of the Year, 2005.
  • Author of Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (OUP, 2002), translated into Korean, Japanese Polish and Russian. A Sunday Times Book of the Year, 2002
  • Co-editor of Life in the Frozen State, the first major multi-author text on cryobiology in the genomic era (CRC Press, 2004)
  • Articles published in Nature, New Scientist, etc
  • Regular guest lecturer in universities, including Oxford and Cambridge
  • Distinuished Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University, 2009
  • Brockington Visitor, Queens University, Kingston, 2011
  • Plenary speaker at conferences, including Gordon and Harden conferences
  • Speaker at literary festivals, including Edinburgh and Hay Festivals
  • Lecturer on first- and third-year Life Sciences courses at UCL and in schools around the country
  • Radio broadcasts and podcasts, including BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, National Public Radio, Nature and Guardian podcasts

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

RESEARCH POSITIONS

  • Provost's Venture Research Fellow, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, UCL
  • Steering Committee, UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research (CfMR)
  • Honorary Reader, UCL Medical School, University College London, 2006 – Date
  • Honary Senior Research Fellow, University College London, 2002-2006
  • Honorary Research Fellow, University College London, 1997-2002
  • PhD student, Royal Free Hospital Medical School 1991 – 1995
  • Scientific Officer, MRC Clinical Research Centre, Northwick Park Hospital 1988 – 1991

 

AWARDS

  • 2011 - Brockington Visitor, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
  • 2010 - Life Ascending WINNER of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, 2010
  • 2010 - Life Ascending nominated as one of the Books of the Year by the Times and the Independent
  • 2009 - First UCL Provost's Venture Research Prize and Fellowship
  • 2009 - Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Rutgers University
  • 2006 - Power, Sex, Suicide short-listed for the Times Higher Young Academic Author of the Year
  • 2006 - Power, Sex, Suicide short-listed for the Royal Society Science Book Prize
  • 2005 - Power, Sex, Suicide nominated as one of The Economist Books of the Year
  • 2002 - Oxygen nominated as one of The Sunday Times Books of the Year
  • 1994 - Prize winner in the New Scientist Millennial Science Essay Competition
  • 1993 - Prize winner in the Daily Telegraph Young Science Writer of the Year Award
  • 1985 - Awarded the Sir Isaac Holden Scholarship

 

TALKS and MEDIA APPEARANCES

 

PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Strategic Director, Adelphi Medi Cine, 1999 – 2002

  • Chief medical communications strategist in global pharmaceutical marketing campaigns developing interactive multimedia health-economic programs to guide health policy on diabetes, influenza, haemophilia, HRT and infectious disease.
  • Senior Writer/Producer, Medi Cine International 1996 – 1999
  • Developing programmes in a variety of media, including, CD-ROM, DVD, video, slide, web and print; CME program through Johns Hopkins University. Won several prizes in international film festivals, including Gold and Silver awards in the Prix Leonardo, and Silver ‘Hugo’ in the Intercom Chicago International Film Festival.

Medical Writer, Oxford Clinical Communications 1995 – 1996

 

EDUCATION

  • PhD, Royal Free Hospital Medical School, University of London 1991 – 1995: In vivo studies of ischaemia-reperfusion injury in hypothermically stored rabbit renal autograft
  • BSc (Hons) Biochemistry, Imperial College, University of London 1985 – 1988.

 

PERSONAL INTERESTS

  • Raising two small and energetic boys (temporarily eclipsing most of the following)
  • Rock-climbing and mountaineering: numerous foolish exploits on rock, ice and mountain peaks across the UK, Europe and America; finding wild camp sites
  • Fiddle player in traditional Irish band, Probably Not, playing in London pubs and folk venues