(Dandelion pollen grain, Taraxacum officinale) The scientific study of pollen is called palynology and can be used by forensic scientists to discover clues at crime scenes.

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The Board of Trustees

Professor Sir Roy Anderson FRS FMedSci

  • Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College. Recent appointments include Rector of Imperial College London; Chief Scientific Adviser, Ministry of Defence; the Linacre Professorship and Head of Zoology, University of Oxford (1993-1998); Professor of Parasite Epidemiology and Head of Biology at Imperial (1984-1993); and Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, University of Oxford (1995-2000)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine at the US National Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of the French Academy of Science
  • Has published over 450 scientific papers on the epidemiology, population biology, evolution and control of a wide variety of infectious disease agents, including HIV, BSE, foot and mouth, vCJD, SARS and dengue, parasitic melminths and protozoa, and respiratory tract viral and bacterial infections
  • Principal research interests are epidemiology, population biology, evolutionary biology, biomethematics, demography and parasitology. He also has a keen interest in science policy and public engagement with science
  • Has held a wide variety of advisory and consultancy posts with government departments, pharmaceutical companies and international aid agencies and is a non-executive director of GlaxoSmithKline

Last updated: 11 August 2011

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Last year nearly 100,000 specimens were loaned to scientific institutions and researchers worldwide.