Anne Glover

Professor of biology, and former Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission

Dame Professor Anne Glover is a biologist and academic who is currently Vice Principal for External Affairs and Dean for Europe at the University of Aberdeen. Previously, Anne served as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Scottish Government and later to the European Commission.

Anne was educated at the High School of Dundee and studied at the University of Edinburgh for a degree in biochemistry, passing with first class honours in 1978. She went on to study at King's College, Cambridge, where she obtained an MPhil in 1979 and a PhD in 1981.

From August 2006 to December 2011, she was the first ever Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland, where her role was to further enhance Scotland's reputation as a science nation. She then went on to become Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission, a role in which she acted as an ambassador for European science and consistently emphasised the need for the European Commission's science policy to be firmly based on evidence.

In the 2009 New Year Honours, Anne was awarded a CBE in recognition of her service as Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland and for services to environmental science, and in 2015 she was promoted to a Dame for her work with the European Commission.

On 10 March 2016 Anne delivered our first ever Rosalind Franklin Lecture, celebrating women’s contribution to humanism, whether through academia or the promotion of human rights and rule of law. Anne delivered a talk entitled ‘Why evidence really matters’ which explored ideas relating to what makes good evidence, what beliefs can be rationally upheld by the available evidence, and what all this means for matters of public and science policy.

In October 2017 it was confirmed that Anne will take up the position of President of Royal Society of Edinburgh beginning in April 2018.