Friends of IARC

"It was a privilege to have chaired the Governing Council of IARC for four years. The work of the Agency is even more important now than when it was first established, and the continuing increase in the number of Participating States supporting the Agency demonstrates its global relevance and reach."

Dr Mark Palmer is Director of International Strategy at the Medical Research Council (MRC). He has a degree in biochemistry from the University of Oxford, where he also completed his doctorate on the murine immune response to influenza. He has responsibility for MRC′s international policy and coordination of global health strategy. 

Dr Palmer has served as Chairperson of the IARC Governing Council, Chair of the General Assembly of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the Human Frontier Science Programme (HFSP), and Vice-President of the Korea–United Kingdom London Health Forum. He serves on the Governing Council of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) and on the Board of ELIXIR. Dr Palmer is also the United Kingdom lead for Societal Challenge 1 (Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing) of the European Commission′s Framework Programme Horizon 2020.