IBMS Congress

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Albert Norman Lecture

Albert Norman Lecture 2011

Monday 26 September, 14.00 – 14.45
Crime of the Century or Chance of a Lifetime?
Alan Potter, Former Chief Executive, IBMS

The Institute celebrates its centenary in 2012. Albert Norman was one of the founding members and history has attributed to him the role of the moving spirit behind its successful formation.

On the wider stage, as is always the case, history records the names of individuals as if they alone were responsible for major achievements – Darwin, Fleming, Jenner, Lister and so on have worldwide notoriety for their contribution in their chosen fields and to society. Yet closer examination always reveals that the progress attributed to them as individuals was the result of lengthy collaboration and the involvement of many other co-workers, and that key publications were in some cases joint and often competitive with others in the field. Yet history remembers only one name (with the possible exception of Watson and Crick), because history needs a bottom line.

Within the field of Biomedical Science there can be no doubt that Albert Normans vision and contribution has not been surpassed and he has earned above all others his historical place as the one name remembered as the emblem of the foundation of the Institute. He and the other members of the Provisional Committee that founded the Institute had individually come to the realisation that the knowledge and skills that each had acquired needed a collective repository for the good of all. The fact that this happened so successfully at such an early time is even more remarkable if the context of this event is examined from the social, economic and scientific perspectives of the day.

Albert Norman Lecture 2009

You can listen to Albert Norman lecture 2009 lecture given by Professor Andrew Bradley on Advances in Organ Transplantation and the Associated Immunological Consequences on the online lectures page.