Director General
Iain Mattaj
Director General
Professor Iain Mattaj was born in St. Andrews, Scotland. He attended Edinburgh University, Scotland and after completing his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry (honours), he attended the University of Leeds, England for his PhD studies. Following his PhD, Iain carried out postdoctoral research at the Friedrich Miescher Institute, Switzerland then at the Biocentre, University of Basel, Switzerland, before joining EMBL Heidelberg as a Group Leader in 1985. He became Coordinator of the Gene Expression Unit at EMBL in 1990 before being promoted to the position as Scientific Director in 1999. Iain was appointed Director General in May 2005.
In addition to his leadership success at EMBL, Iain's own research achievements have been considerable and varied. His early work centered on a group of ribonucle oprotein particles (RNP) that function in the processing of messenger RNA precursors. His analyses of these RNPs spanned a variety of topics and his studies led to fundamental insights of general importance. His prominent standing in the field was underlined by his election as President of the RNA Society and his award of the prestigious Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2001. His most recent work is focused on aspects of the regulation of processes that occur during cell division.
Iain is a distinguished scientist whose contributions have been recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (London), Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Member of Academia Europea and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and helped make The EMBO Journal a highly successful international scientific journal, acting as Executive Editor from 1990 to 2004.
Support
Andrea Washington
Personal Assistant to the Director General
Tel: +49 6221 387-8201
Michael Thompson
Assistant to the Director General and Head of Council Secretariat
Tel: +49 6221 387-8288
Contact Email: dg-office@embl.org