94th Congregation (2024)

Universities as we know them – secular, independent communities of the mind – first emerged almost a thousand years ago. Their underlying foundations stretch back much further still, to classical Greece, but their core concerns lie with today and tomorrow. We curate, interpret and extend what is known, and we train emissaries to send into the future. And yet the past on which we are built can constrain, rather than inspire and liberate us if it becomes a source of dogma or unexamined and unchallenged habit, so that in some areas we do not lead, but slowly follow. 

England had universities long before it had a queen, let alone a woman as Prime Minister. But at the end of the year 2010, centuries after the coronation of its first Queen Elizabeth, and decades after Margaret Thatcher’s appointment, the country’s elite Russell Group of 24 universities still had only one woman Vice-Chancellor, and the country’s largest university had just appointed its own first to that role. We are honouring that woman today: Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester in 2010 and held that post with great distinction for 14 years. This summer she became a Professor Emeritus and Ambassador for the University. 

The under-representation of women in senior roles in academia and science is not a uniquely British failing. Just six years ago women accounted for under 20 per cent of Hong Kong’s senior academic staff, according to University Grants Committee data. And across the world, only 17 per cent of the top 200 universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) international rankings were led by women. Overlooked talent abounds; we have a lot of ground to make up. 

Professor Rothwell is a physiologist and neuroscientist who has become a role-model and champion for science, innovative leadership and women. Yet she has also candidly reflected on what could have held her back. In addition to the time demands of academic leadership that make work-life balance almost impossible, and some deeply ingrained biases, women have tended to be more ready to think that if they do not meet all the specifications for a job, they shouldn’t apply; identically qualified men are more likely to give it a go. When Professor Rothwell was urged to apply for the post of vice-chancellor in 2010, after three years as deputy vice-chancellor, she overcame that obstacle, impelled by her passion for the university that had been her academic home for more than two decades. 

She went on to become one of the country’s longest serving vice-chancellors, overseeing a community of 50,000 students and staff and an annual budget of £1.3 billion, with significant growth in student numbers, research income, and the fabric of the university. Her tenure is also marked by elevating the university to become ranked among the top three in the world for its commitments to social responsibility and sustainability. The latter includes concrete action to achieve net zero by 2038: a solar farm will produce 65% of its electricity needs when it opens in Autumn 2025 – just one example of how this commitment will be achieved. 

Professor Rothwell is no stranger to CUHK. Last year our two universities established a range of teaching and research collaborations, including the launch of a study option allowing our School of Biomedical Sciences students to earn both a CUHK BSc degree and a University of Manchester Master of Science in four years, the latter spent in Manchester in either Infection Biology or Tissue Engineering for Regenerative Medicine. 

Her career journey has been far from conventional. The young Nancy Rothwell grew up in rural Lancashire in the north of England, loving the outdoors and playing on her uncles’ miniature steam railway and farm. She has described her father as an eccentric biologist who kept the props of his science, such as skeletons and “pickled things” in bottles, around the house, and a number of fast cars outside. He made biology interesting at home, but that didn’t cross over into school, which managed to make the subject so boring that she gave it up at the age of 14 and took A-levels in maths, physics and chemistry, whose teachers related the subjects to the world outside, plus art, for which she took herself to art school.  She toyed with the idea of a career in art, before realising that she was unlikely to make a serious living from it – although, as a doctoral student, she did help support herself by drawing and selling cartoons. Still further in the future, interest in the arts helped her to win respect beyond Manchester’s science community. And those fast cars clearly had their own, lasting influence as well: the racetrack remains one of her passions. 

From school, she applied to Queen Elizabeth College, which was later merged into King’s College London – a place whose purely academic credentials were seriously enhanced by its location on Kensington High Street – followers of London fashion at the time will know it as  so convenient for Biba. She also juggled her time to manage to captain the women’s rugby team, play darts, spend three nights a week doing bar work, as well as holding down a part-time job in a market garden: excellent training for a top university leader! 

By her third year, following completion of a research dissertation, she knew her future lay in academia, convinced that there was nothing more exciting than trying to understand the things around us, not least the human body. She achieved a first-class degree and at the same college went on to complete her PhD in just two years, focused on the physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation of body weight, which became her area of specialism for the first chapter of her career. There seemed no end to her enthusiasm for her research, even volunteering herself for over- and under-feeding experiments to explore the role of metabolism in body weight.  She recalls eating over 3000 calories a day over a three-week period, but only putting on 10kg, unlike some other participants who loaded on much more. 

Yet in 1987 she did something rare in science: she switched fields, to neuroscience. This was prompted by her unexpected discovery that the protein molecule interleukin-1 (IL- for short), which she had found to trigger weight loss during infection and disease, was also active in the brain’s response to a stroke, or other injury, and in its bad-cop role extended the damage. Moreover, it could be controlled through the IL-1 blocker that occurs naturally in the body and has been manufactured synthetically as a drug to treat arthritis. The finding was a shock within the neuroscience community, and was initially dismissed.  

When she relocated in 1987 to Victoria University of Manchester, which later formed part of the University of Manchester, she completed her transition to neuroscience and built on this research. Recognition followed. She rose to professor of physiology in 1994, was awarded a highly competitive Medical Research Council Chair from 1998 to 2010, and in 2004 was appointed by the university as vice-president for research, and later as deputy president.

Throughout her tenure in senior leadership she remained active in research, as she is now. Her current focus is on the role of inflammation in brain disease. Having patented the use of IL-1 inhibitors to prevent acute neurodegeneration she is leading the first clinical trial of their use in stroke treatment.

Professor Rothwell’s charisma and passion for science has made her a sought-after science communicator, most famously in 1998 in delivering the Royal Society’s Christmas Lectures,  on “the secrets of life”, involving live experiments on stage and  filmed by the BBC. Her commitment to both science and civic engagement has led her to take on numerous leadership and  advisory roles: she was the founding president of the Royal Society of Biology, a co-chair of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, chair of the Russell Group (and the first woman to hold that chair),  and a council or board member of the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, the Royal Society and the UK Biobank Board, among others. Beyond academia and public service she was also a non-executive director of AstraZeneca, from 2005 to 2015. Her achievements and contributions have been recognised at the highest levels. Amongst her awards she has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

The city of Manchester will not forget her many contributions. This summer her portrait was unveiled in its Whitworth art gallery, and the university’s new engineering research and teaching facility – the largest in Europe – was named after her. She has also been invited to be an ambassador for the university and expects to continue to engage in issues facing higher education, locally and globally.  Manchester’s fame of course extends beyond the arts and education and here, too, she has made her contribution, as a member of the Old Trafford regeneration taskforce established by the owners of Manchester United Football Club, who have themselves invested heavily in the university. Now that is surely a virtuous circle.

Mr Chairman, it is my great honour to present to you Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, who has been a visionary beacon as a university leader, scientist, and science communicator, for the award of the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. 

Citation is presented by Professor Nick Rawlins,Pro-Vice-Chancellor / Vice-President (Student Experience) and Master of Morningside College