Professor Mary Collins Joins OIST

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) welcomes Prof. Mary Collins as Dean of Research. Prof. Collins will take up her post in Okinawa in January, reaching full time commitment in September 2016.

“I am excited to come to OIST, a university that has high ambitions to become one of the best in the world, which is also examining new models of both education and research.” enthused Prof. Collins.

Mary Collins has a distinguished background both in scientific research and high-level management in universities and research centres.

Prof. Collins studied Biochemistry at Cambridge University then moved to the University of London at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund for her PhD. Collins worked as a post-doctoral fellow on molecular immunology at University College London, then the Whitehead Institute, MIT. She started her own group at the Institute of Cancer Research in 1987. Collins moved to University College London as Professor of Immunology in 1997. From 2005 to 2015 she was Director of the Britain’s Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Molecular Virology. After heading the Division of Infection and Immunity at University College London for 10 years, Collins was Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at University College London from 2009 until 2014. In September 2014 Prof. Collins took up a secondment at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control to head a new Division of Advanced Therapies.

Dr Albrecht Wagner, Acting President of OIST, said, “I am delighted that Mary Collins is joining our university. She has demonstrated the highest level of competence in research and management throughout her career. She will make an important contribution to the next phase of development at OIST.”