Keynote Speaker of the IUBMB Jubilee Award Lecture

Professor Dame Linda Partridge

Dame Linda Partridge is a British geneticist, who studies the biology and genetics of ageing (biogerontology) and age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Professor Partridge has been Weldon Professor of Biometry at University College London (UCL) since 1994 where she is also the Director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing, a role she has held since 2007. In 2008, she was appointed as one of three founding Directors of the new Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Koln, Germany. She was educated at the University of Oxford, UK, where she studied Zoology. She pursued her career as a post-doc at the University of York, UK, where she focused on the behavioural and morphological aspects of bird research. Moving to Edinburgh University as a Lecturer and then Professor of Evolutionary Biology, she extended her scientific interests to mechanistic evolutionary aspects and additional models for research, i.e. Drosophila melanogaster. She has since focussed her work on the biology of ageing – an area in which she has made significant contributions. Her current research focuses on single gene mutations and environmental interventions, such as diet, that can extend healthy lifespan and protect against ageing-associated diseases in laboratory animals. She is also interested in translating these findings into novel interventions and new therapies to improve human health during ageing

Professor Partridge is the recipient of numerous awards, including giving the Royal Society Croonian Lecture in May and her recent DBE for services to science. She was elected to the Royal Society in 1996 and appointed CBE in 2003. She was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2004, and was awarded the Linnean Society of London's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 2008. In 2009, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), while also receiving the Croonian lectureship from the Royal Society. In March 2009, the UKRC announced Dame Partridge as one of six Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology. She was awarded with Foreign Honorary Membership from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010 and is a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering.

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