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Andrew Webster

Background

Andrew Webster was born in Manchester in 1951 and attended Xaverian College Grammar School. In 1969 he studied at Boston College after joining the Xaverian Scholasticate in Newton Highlands between 1969-71. On his return to the UK he studied for a BSC in Social Sciences at the Polytechnic of the South Bank securing a first class honours degree in 1974.He completed his doctoral thesis in the sociology of science at the University of York under the supervision of Michael Mulkay. His thesis explored the relationship between traditional medicine and modern biomedical developments, the start of a career-long interest in how novel biomedical technologies engage with existing systems, which subsequently led to a large body of work on regenerative medicine.

Career Professor Andrew Webster has been Professor in the Sociology of Science and Technology at York since 1999. He was also the Director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit at York which he established originally at Anglia Ruskin University in 1988. He has held a visiting fellowships at ANU, Sydney and Gothenburg universities.

He was Head of the Department of Sociology at York between 2004-9 and then Dean of Social Sciences and member of the University's Senior Management Group until 2013.He has directed national research programmes for the ESRC and MRC in the fields of emerging health technologies and stem cells, and held major grants from UK research councils and the European Commission.

Andrew serves on a number of editorial and scientific advisory boards as well as national policy committees including the UK Stem Cell Bank Steering Committee, the Regenerative Medicine Expert Group Sub-committee, and the Scientific Advisory Committee, Pharmacy Research UK, as well as member of various UK and international academic bodies including, the BSA, EASST, and the Dutch WTMC's International Scientific Board.

University roles He was founder and Director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit between 1988 and 2017, the Unit originally established at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge Chair of ESRC Doctoral Training Centre

AWARDS He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 2007. In 2017 he was awarded the Annual 4S Mentoring Award for his long-standing support for junior researchers (such as through the Marie Curie training programme and Bio-objects COST Action)and more senior colleagues via the national and international networks he has helped to create.

Recent research His research on the translation and adoption of novel biomedical therapies led to the concept of 'institutional readiness' which he and his colleague John Gardner developed through their work on the challenges health care systems face when introducing regenerative medicine, such as CAR T cell therapies. The concept was subsequently adopted by the advanced therapy treatment centres in the UK's National Health Service enabling them to identify the capacities they need to embrace these new techniques.