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Report of the General Board on the re-establishment of the Professorship of Metabolic Medicine

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The field of diabetes, obesity, and metabolism is one of the principal research themes in the School of Clinical Medicine, not least because the increasing incidence of these disorders is of major significance in both developed and developing countries. In 1996 a Professorship of Metabolic Medicine was established for one tenure and assigned to the Department of Medicine. The Professorship lapsed on 1 October 2002 on the election of Professor S. O'Rahilly to the Professorship of Clinical Biochemistry.

2. The work undertaken by the Professor of Metabolic Medicine has been fundamental to the significant developments in both teaching and research in this important area. This role will be further enhanced with the proposed construction of the University's Institute for Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism (CIDEM) in a new building on the Addenbrooke's Hospital Site which will also accommodate a genetics unit and a new elective care block for the Addenbrooke's NHS Trust. CIDEM, which is expected to open in 2005-06, will bring together the interests presently dispersed throughout the Clinical School in areas of genetic, physiological, epidemiological, and clinical research within the fields of diabetes, obesity, and metabolism.

3. The Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine have accordingly advised the General Board that the re-establishment of this Professorship is fundamental to both the School of Clinical Medicine and its associated teaching hospital (Addenbrooke's NHS Trust) where it is expected that the holder of the Professorship would take part in the provision of services for diabetes and hold an honorary clinical contract. The Faculty Board have therefore proposed that the Professorship be re-established immediately for a further tenure. The General Board have agreed to this proposal and that the cost of the Professorship will again be met as a charge on the University Education Fund.

4. The General Board accordingly propose that the Professorship of Metabolic Medicine be re-established for a further tenure in the University from 1 July 2003 and assigned to the Department of Medicine. The Board are assured that an appointment at this level will attract a strong field of well-qualified candidates; they have agreed to concur in the view of the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine that an election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors, and that candidature should be open to all persons whose work falls within the field of the title of the Professorship.

5. The General Board recommend:

That a Professorship of Metabolic Medicine be re-established in the University for one tenure from 1 July 2003, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of Medicine.

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Cambridge University Reporter, 11 June 2003
Copyright © 2003 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.