Gurdon Institute welcomes new Director

01.01.24 Ben Simons, who has been a Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute since 2011, is our new Director. He takes over the reins from Julie Ahringer, who served for five years and now continues as a Group Leader. Ben is the fifth Director since the Institute was formed in 1991.

Ben is a Royal Society EP Abraham Professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and the Herchel Smith Chair in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory. He is also a PI at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and a Fellow of St. John’s College.

Ben’s research combines mathematical and statistical modelling with cell fate mapping and gene expression profiling to address mechanisms of cell fate. His studies have helped uncover conserved patterns of stem cell self-renewal and understand how these programmes become dysregulated during the transition to cancerous states.