Professor Rod Flower PhD DSc FSB F Acad MedSci FRS

Rod Flower read physiology at the University of Sheffield graduating with a 1st Class honours degree in 1971. Following a period of postgraduate research in John Vane’s department at the Royal College of Surgeons, he received his PhD in 1974. He moved with Vane to the Wellcome Foundation, leaving in 1985 to take up the Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Bath. In 1989, he moved to the Charterhouse Square campus of the (then) Bart’s Hospital Medical School and, together with Vane and others, set up The William Harvey Research Institute, specialising in pharmacological research.Rod’s main research interests are inflammation and anti-inflammatory drugs, particularly the mechanism of action of aspirin, steroids and other anti-allergic drugs. He also has an interest in platelet pharmacology as well as biosecurity matters and the control of biological and chemical weapons. Rod was elected to fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999 and the Royal Society in 2003. He was also president of the British Pharmacological Society (2000-2003) has published over 350 scientific papers and books.