Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz has been nominated to replace Alison Richard as Vice-Chancellor of the University.

If his nomination is approved by Regent House, Professor Borysiewicz will step into the University’s top role on October 1st 2010, when Professor Richard’s seven-year term ends. He will be the University’s 345th Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Borysiewicz is currently Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council (MRC), and holds, among other posts, a Fellowship at the Academy of Medical Sciences, of which he was a founder. Before taking his job at the MRC, he served as Deputy Rector of Imperial College London, where he was in charge of the College’s academic and scientific development, focusing especially on fostering interdisciplinary research between medicine and other science subjects.

Born in Wales, Borysiewicz has previously worked as Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Wales, and was Lecturer in Medicine at Cambridge from 1988 to 1991. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College.

He was awarded his knighthood in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, in recognition of work that led to a vaccine which stops the growth of cervical cancer.

Of his nomination, Professor Borysiewicz commented: “I am excited by the opportunity to build on Cambridge’s strong tradition of academic excellence in both teaching and research. I will be sad to leave the Medical Research Council but I am proud to have helped the MRC write the next chapter in its long and successful history of improving human health through the impact of its excellent research.”

Professor Alison Richard has held the post of Vice-Chancellor since 2003, when she became the first woman to hold the full-time role. She came to the job from her former post as Yale University Provost.

Of Professor Borysiewicz’s nomination, she said: “Professor Borysiewicz is an outstanding scholar with an impressive record of achievement and leadership at the highest level. I wish him the very best in the role and will hand over the Vice-Chancellorship next October confident that Cambridge can look forward to continued success as he leads it into the future.”

Speaking to Varsity last year, Richard said of leaving her post as Vice-Chancellor: “I don’t think about legacies. I focus my attention on the institution, not on how I’m thought of.” She also expressed the hope that she would leave Cambridge with “its ambitions high, its confidence intact, [and] its flags flying.”