Nancy Rothwell

In January 2010, Rothwell was appointed deputy president and deputy vice-chancellor. Until Alan Gilbert retired she was acting president due to his sick leave. On 21 June 2010, she was appointed President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester. She assumed her post on 1 July 2010, succeeding Alan Gilbert, who had retired after nearly six years. She became the first woman to lead the University of Manchester or either of its two predecessor institutions. Commenting on her appointment, she said: "I am honoured and delighted to be invited to lead the University at this exciting time. I am determined to maintain the strategic focus that we have developed over the past six years and to work closely with colleagues to identify new priorities and opportunities for the University in the very challenging external environment that we will face over the next few years."

The chairman of the appointment panel and chairman-elect of the university's board of governors, Anil Ruia, said: "Dame Nancy will bring her own distinctive strengths, perspective and style to the role of President and Vice-Chancellor which will enable the University to build upon the remarkable progress that we have made under Professor Alan Gilbert's leadership." In 2009 Rothwell became the first president of the Society of Biology, now the Royal Society of Biology.

In May 2020 Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell was appointed as the chair of the Russell Group, starting September 2020.[19] The group represents 24 of the leading Universities in UK.

In April 2020 Rothwell wrote to University of Manchester staff warning that the loss of revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic would result in pay cuts and possible job losses.[33][34] In September 2020 she warned that students who failed to follow social distancing rules could be excluded from the university campus.[35]

In the Autumn 2020 semester the university's handling of the pandemic and the second national lockdown led to criticism and protests.[36][37] In September 2020 university officials said they had taken precautions including staggered arrivals, social distancing and a reduced lecture timetable, though university staff alleged they were being pressured into conducting face-to-face teaching.[36] In October 2020 the Fallowfield area, home to the university's Fallowfield Campus, saw more COVID-19 cases than any other part of the UK.[36] Rothwell launched an investigation after fences were erected around campus residences in November 2020 and apologised for the university's "very poor communication" with students.[38][39] Days later students began a rent strike and occupied a campus building and demanded Rothwell meet with them to discuss a proposed rent discount.[40][41] Later in November Rothwell acknowledged the university had made "mistakes" in its approach to the pandemic and said that, while many students supported the measures, others felt "let down".[36] The inquiry issued a report in December 2020, which identified failures of project management on the university's part and a failure to engage with students; Rothwell accepted the inquiry's findings and pledged to implement its recommendations.[42]

Also in November 2020, anti-racist campaigners called on Rothwell to resign following an incident in which a black student was detained and allegedly racially profiled by university security guards.[37] A Universities and Colleges Union official said Rothwell should "offer a full apology" to the student "and stop trying to police the university’s student population."[36] In an interview on Newsnight, Rothwell said she had contacted the student to apologise.[43][44] At the time of the interview she had not, in fact, contacted the student, and she later apologised for claiming she had done so.[45][46]

In February 2013 she was assessed as the 15th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[47][48] In May 2013 she was the subject of BBC Radio 4's The Life Scientific and was interviewed about her life and work by Jim Al-Khalili.[5] Rothwell was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2005 Birthday Honours,[49] Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2004,[50] Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci).[1] In 2003 she won the prestigious Royal Society Pfizer Award.[51][52] Her nomination for the Royal Society reads:[53]

Nancy Rothwell has made major discoveries in the areas of energy balance, host defence responses, and neurodegeneration, several of which are now being translated into clinical benefit. Early work emphasised the importance of thermogenesis in the regulation of energy balance and the aetiology of obesity, and the role of b2 adrenoreceptor activation in muscle hypertrophy. More recently she has carried out pioneering studies of the role of cytokines and other components of the immune system within the central nervous system. She demonstrated the key role of specific cytokines and the hormone leptin in the integration and regulation by the brain of host defence responses to infection and injury. This led to important discoveries concerning the role of cytokines in neurodegeneration. She was the first to show that the cytokine IL-1 mediates ischaemic brain damage, challenging the view that immune or inflammatory processes are unimportant in the brain. She patented the use of IL-1 inhibitors to prevent acute neurodegeneration and is leading the first clinical trial of such an inhibitor in stroke. Her demonstration that caspases are involved directly in ischaemic brain damage in vivo stimulated the development of caspase inhibitors for possible clinical application. Nancy Rothwell has also worked energetically to advance physiology and neuroscience, to further public awareness of science, and to encourage women to pursue careers in science.

She is an honorary member of the British Society for Immunology[54] and honorary fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.[55] She has been a member of The Physiological Society since 1982 and was awarded the Physiological Society Annual Review Prize Lecture in 1998.