Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Professor Alan Archibald and Sir John Savill (Vice Principal and Head of College) offered their congratulations to Professor David Hume (Director of The Roslin Institute) and Professor Jean Manson (Head of the Institute's Neuropathogenesis Division) on their election as fellows to the RSE. Professor Hume has been the Director of The Roslin Institute since 2007. He is an international authority in genome sciences, with a particular focus on the function of specialised cells of the immune system in infection, inflammatory disease and cancer. Prior to taking his current post at The Roslin Institute, Professor Hume was Director of the ARC Special Centre for Functional and Applied Genomics at the Institute for Molecular BioScience at the University of Queensland. Professor Manson is an internationally recognized scientist in TSE research. Her research focuses on elucidating mechanisms of TSE disease transmission within and between individuals using unique transgenic mouse models. She is a member of the WHO TSEs Working Group, the UK SEAC government advisory body and the Executive Committee of the NeuroPrion EU Network of Excellence. She was awarded an OBE in the 2008 New Year's honour list. The RSE was founded in 1783 by Royal Charter for the "Advancement of Learning and Useful Knowledge". It is Scotland's National Academy of Science and Letters. Today it has around 1500 Fellows whose expertise encompasses the full spectrum of the sciences, medicine, engineering and technology, education, law, the arts, humanities, social sciences, business, industry, the professions and public service. Its mission today is providing public benefit through the advancement of learning and useful knowledge. Once admitted to the RSE Fellows are encouraged to contribute to the aims and objectives of the Society, including the provision of expert policy advice to Government and Parliament, outreach education programmes for young people, and public engagement events including conferences and discussion forums. I know that the new intake of Fellows will enhance the already considerable knowledge base of the RSE Fellowship. We will continue to put this expertise at the service of education and policy development in Scotland, the UK, and where appropriate internationally. Lord Wilson of TillyornRSE President
