Professor Anthony Campbell MA PhD FLS FRSA

Anthony is one of life's genuine enthusiasts. An internationally acclaimed medical biochemist, he is an expert in the science of lactose intolerance, and in animals that make light - bioluminescence. This has revolutionised biomedical research and clinical diagnosis, the technology now being used in over 100 million clinical tests per year. He obtained an exhibition to read Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and a first class degree and PhD in Biochemistry. He is now Professor in Medical Biochemistry at Cardiff University. He has published over 200 scientific papers, 8 books, and has several patents being exploited world wide. This technology received the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education in 1998, and was recently selected by Universities UK in their Eureka project as one of the 100 most important inventions from UK Universities in the past 50 years. He is passionate about communicating cutting edge science to young people and the public, founding the Darwin Centre in 1994 and the highly acclaimed Pembrokeshire Darwin Science Festival in 2000.

Anthony is a true natural scientist who believes that science begins with curiosity, and that the challenge is to harness this curiosity, through our inventiveness, to discover how the living world works, and evolved. He also believes that invention is as scientifically challenging as discovery, playing a central role in the evolution of our culture and economy. He has applied this philosophy to his own researches into what switches cells on and off in health and disease, and to developing platform technologies for clinical diagnosis and drug discovery, based on chemical reactions that produce light - chemi- and bio- luminescence.

Anthony was born in 1945 in Bangor, North Wales, but grew up in London. He was educated at The City of London School, and obtained a first-class degree and PhD in Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is now Professor in Medical Biochemistry at the Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff University, and also has set up a science centre with a lab and seminar room for schools in Pembrokeshire. His researches have taken him from the biochemistry of deep-sea bioluminescence to the molecular basis of rheumatoid arthritis. He pioneered a strategy to study the chemistry of living cells, based on the genetic engineering of bioluminescent proteins. An international authority on intracellular signalling, and in chemi- and bio-luminescence, he has written three books in these fields, Intracellular Calcium: its universal role as regulator, Chemiluminescence: principles and applications in biology and medicine, and Rubicon: the fifth dimension of biology. Anthony has wide experience in the Public Engagement of Science and Health, in Wales, nationally and internationally. He founded The Darwin Centre for Biology and Medicine in 1994 (Canolfan Bywydeg a Meddygaeth Darwin), which aims to bring cutting edge science and entrepreneurship into everyday life, catalysing fresh inspiration in research, and in the presentation of science, through a University network linked to schools and the public throughout Wales, and a marine sabbatical centre. Tony is scientific director of The Darwin Centre. He has given many TV and radio interviews, and founded the Pembrokeshire Darwin Science Festival in 1999. This festival ran over 30 events from March-September 2000, involving several thousand participants, and is now in its 6th year. He has presented at several Public Engagement of Science events national and internationally. He initiated plans with the Institute for Welsh Affairs for a Science policy and strategy for Wales, in which Public Engagement is a central theme. He is married and has 5 children. The discovery of lactose intolerance has transformed his life. With his wife, he has published a ground breaking recipe book -'Tony's lactose free cookbook - the science of lactose intolerance and how to live without lactose.' Anthony is a keen musician, both as a tenor and conductor. He is also an enthusiastic naturalist, often to be found burning the midnight oil on the beaches or in the vales, looking for glow-worms, and other examples of the biological phenomenon that excites him most - bioluminescence. He has a wife, who is a consultant clinical biochemist, and five children.