Colin Blakemore

Colin Blakemore is a British neurobiologist specializing in vision. He was formerly chief executive of the British Medical Research Council (MRC). He is best known to the public as a communicator of science but also as the target of a long-running animal-rights campaign. According to The Observer, he has been both "one of the most powerful scientists in the [UK]" and "a hate figure for the animal rights movement".

Background and research interests

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, he was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and then won a state scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he gained a first-class degree in medical sciences, then completed his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USA as a Harkness Fellow[1]. He returned to become a member of the faculty at Cambridge, before moving to the University of Oxford where he became Waynflete Professor of Physiology at the age of 35.

His research has focused on vision, the early development of the brain and, more recently, conditions such as Huntington's and Alzheimer's disease. He has published nearly 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers and a number of books on these subjects.

He was director of the MRC Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Oxford for eight years. He has served as president of the Biosciences Federation, British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society, and president and chairman of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the Institute of Biology. He has been honoured for his achievements in science with prizes from many academies and societies, including the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, the French Académie Nationale de Médecine, the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists and the Royal College of Physicians. In 1996 he won the Alcon International Prize for research relevant to clinical ophthalmology. He has been awarded eight Honorary Degrees from British and overseas universities.

Public communication and engagement

In parallel with his academic career, Colin Blakemore has advocated the communication of science and engaged with the public on controversial and challenging aspects of science. In 1976 he was the youngest ever person to give the BBC Reith Lectures and he has subsequently presented or contributed to hundreds of radio and television broadcasts. He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1992, and he has written and presented documentary programmes about science, including a 13-part series, The Mind Machine on BBC television and a radio series about artificial intelligence called Machines with Minds. He also writes regularly for newspapers in Britain and elsewhere and has published several popular science books, including Mechanics of the Mind, The Mind Machine and The Oxford Companion to the Body.

In 1989 Blakemore was awarded the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Prize for his work in public communication. He has also won the Beta Kappa Award in Science, for contribution to the literature of science, the John P McGovern Science and Society Medal from Sigma Xi, the Edinburgh Medal from the City of Edinburgh and the Science Educator Award from the Society for Neuroscience.

Blakemore has worked for many medical charities and not-for-profit organizations, including SANE, Headway, the Coalition for Medical Progress, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, the Louise T Blouin Foundation and the Dana Foundation of New York. He is Honorary President of the World Cultural Council and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Animal testing and animal rights

Blakemore is outspoken in his support of the use of animal testing in medical research, though he has publicly denounced fox hunting and animal testing for cosmetics.

He came to the attention of the animal rights movement while at Oxford University in the 1980s, when he carried out research into amblyopia and strabismus, conducting experiments that involved sewing kittens' eyes shut from birth in order to study the development of their visual cortex. Blakemore has said of the research that it was directly applicable to humans, and that "[t]hanks to it, and similar research, we now know why conditions like amblyopia — the most common form of child blindness — occur and are now able to tackle it and think of ways of preventing it."

Since then, according to The Observer, he and his family have "endured assaults by masked terrorists, bombs sent to his children, letters laced with razor blades, a suicide bid by his wife, and more than a decade of attacks and abuse."

In 1992, together with Les Ward of the anti-vivisection group Advocates for Animals, he co-founded a bipartisan think tank called the Boyd Group, to consider issues relating to animal experimentation.

In 1998, during the 68-day hunger strike of British animal-rights activist Barry Horne, Blakemore's life was threatened in a statement released by Robin Webb of the Animal Liberation Press Office on behalf of the Animal Rights Militia. Direct action against him has abated somewhat since the prosecution of Cynthia O'Neill for harassing him in 2000.

At the MRC

In 2003, Blakemore succeeded Professor Sir George Radda as the head of the Medical Research Council, a national organisation that supports medical science with an annual budget of almost £500 million. The position came to an end in 2007 when he returned to a Professorship of Neuroscience at Oxford. He also holds a Professorship at the University of Warwick and is Chairman of the Neuroscience Research Partnership in Singapore. He was succeeded by Leszek Borysiewicz.

Honours controversy

Soon after his appointment to the MRC the The Sunday Times published a leaked British Cabinet Office document that suggested he was deemed unsuitable for inclusion in the 2004 New Year's Honours List because of his research on animals - research considered "controversial" by a British government committee that oversees matters of science and technology but widely supported by political leaders and the public. In response, he threatened to resign, suggesting in interviews that his position as chief executive was now untenable:

It's a matter of principle. The mission statement of the MRC is explicit. There's a specific commitment to talk to the public about issues in medical research. How can I now go to our scientists, and ask them to risk talking about animal research, when there now appears to be evidence that in secret the government disapproves it, even though in public they've strongly encouraged it? [2]

A parliamentary inquiry investigating the matter implicated the Science and Technology Committee [3] chaired by Sir Richard Mottram. After expressions of support for animal experimentation from then Prime Minister Tony Blair; Chief Scientific Adviser David King; Minister for Science Lord Sainsbury; and the wider scientific community, Blakemore withdrew his intention to resign. [4] As of 2007, he is the only MRC chief executive unrecognised by the British honours system.

National Institute for Medical Research taskforce

In 2003 the MRC announced plans to consider moving the National Institute for Medical Research, its flagship research facility, from its current location in Mill Hill to a new site in central London. As part of the consultation process a taskforce was convened, with Blakemore as chairman, to consider options for the size and location of the new NIMR. [5] During the process a number of senior staff at NIMR, including the then Director, Sir John Skehel, opposed a move being proposed as the only option [6] believing "staying at Mill Hill should be considered." [7]

Robin Lovell-Badge, a scientist at NIMR who was a member of the taskforce, proposed this option be included in the official publication of the taskforce, something that Blakemore and the majority of other members were opposed to. [8] After disagreeing on the issue, Lovell-Badge alleged that Blakemore had twice attempted to "coerce" him into agreement by threatening his job. Blakemore denied the allegations, describing them as "pure invention".

A House of Commons select committee investigated the claims. They found "no specific credible evidence" to support the complaint, reporting the allegation "would have carried more weight had it been made at the time rather than in public during the final stages of the decision making process when relations between NIMR and MRC management had fallen into mutual animosity." [9]

However, the committee did criticise Blakemore for his "heavy handed" lobbying of other taskforce members [10] and reported that a "more independent" figure than Blakemore should have chaired the taskforce. The report also criticised unnamed senior NIMR staff for an attempt at "undermining Blakemore's position." [11][12]

Further reading

• The Next Big Thing - 11 freeview video science discussion programmes chaired by Colin Blakemore produced by the BBC and the Vega Science Trust.
• McKie, Robin. "Snubbed honours scientist 'to quit'". The Observer, December 21, 2003.
• Select Committee on Public Administration, Minutes of Evidence. Examination of Witness (Questions 608-639). April 29, 2004.