Thanks for visiting us and welcome to the BSRC.
Whether you are a member of the public, a potential graduate student or a scientist, the BSRC website is aimed to help explain what we do. Science has transformed all our lives and we have only just begun to tap its potential. There has never been a more exciting time to pursue scientific research. The science of yesterday and today is largely carried out in departments with familiar names like Biology, Chemistry, Medicine or Physics. Yet much of the science that benefits human health blends all these disciplines and in the future this trend will only continue. The University of St Andrews has blazed a trail in bringing together subjects in a single physical space. The new BSRC is a brick and mortar vote of confidence by the University and the Wellcome Trust in this vision.
Graduate students and post-doctoral researchers in the BSRC can be associated in any one of the four Schools but will almost certainly be working beside or with other scientists from different Schools. This creates an excellent environment in which to go beyond traditional undergraduate or postgraduate training. I trained as chemist and have learned so many things from listening to researchers here give talks on all manner of subjects. Whatever you do in the future, if you are interested in biomedicine then it's crucial to have a broad understanding of modern approaches. A synthetic chemist in the biotech or pharmaceutical sector needs to be able to talk with and understand biologists. Turning a new biological finding into something that makes a difference to mankind often needs medical knowledge and often the benefit is an organic molecule made by a chemist. Cutting edge physics is allowing us to envisage totally different approaches and treatments of diseases.
As a University, our job is to explore fundamental problems and find answers. Often our answers simply allow better questions next time. It is impossible to know what will actually do the most good, but without research there would be no antibiotics, no anti-cancer treatment, no vaccines and no anti-viral drugs. Elsewhere on our website you can read about some of the discoveries we have made here and how some of them are already being turned into treatments or diagnostics.
Professor James H. Naismith FRSE