Professor Charlie Hodgman

Almost the whole of Professor Charlie Hodgman's research career has involved cross-disciplinary working. For 15 years (1977-95, from ICI through several Departments in Cambridge), his research involved the simultaneous application of both laboratory and computational biological techniques to major research issues in plant, animal, medical and biotechnological sciences. Gaining an international reputation in Bioinformatics, he was recruited by GlaxoWellcome in 1995, where he both collaborated with laboratory scientists on specific pharmaceutical R&D projects and developed his own Bioinformatics R&D programme in what is now known as Systems Biology.

In the DTI Beacon programme, he has been the industrial mentor to the three systems biology projects. He has served on several Research Council panels, notably BBSRC cross-committee panel for Bioinformatics, JREI, BBSRC Exploiting Genomics Initiative, the meeting to define the scope of the Systems Biology theme within BBSRC EBS responsive-mode committee. He has also contributed to the development of national strategies for the Research Councils, DTI and OST.

Professor Charlie Hodgman is the Director of the Multidisciplinary Centre for Integrative Biology (MyCIB) and the Centre of Plant Integrative Biology (CPIB). CPIB was awarded the sum of £9 million for research and development in a virtual plant root. CPIB is part of the six Systems Biology Centres funded by research councils in the UK. Professor Charlie Hodgman is involved in plant, mammalian and Yeast research and has numerous collaborations. He is Director of two Masters courses: MSc Integrative Biology and MRes Postgenomic Technologies, as well as teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate modules.