meet the researchers

From Journalist to Scientist

Newly appointed Professor, Eric Blair is one of Yorkshire Cancer Research's key scientists. As a child he dreamt of becoming a Journalist, but in fact chose to become a cancer research scientist instead.

He commented: "As a child I would have liked to become a Journalist, which was possibly influenced my by respect for my English teachers and a relative that worked on a national newspaper in Canada. However, as I grew older my fascination turned to science. I watched people like; Max Perutz, Hermann Bondi, Jacob Bronowsky and Francis Crick on television, who influenced me to go into molecular biology in the first instance".

Based at the University of Leeds, Professor Blair, who has been funded by YCR for approximately the last 15 years, was recently appointed as Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology. His current research work focuses on human papillomviruses (HPV) and how they are involved in the development of cervical cancer.

A Scotsman, born in Edinburgh, Professor Blair did a degree in Biochemistry at Edinburgh University and a PhD at Warwick University. He has also studied the molecular biology of human viruses in Denmark, Sweden and the National Institute for Medical Research in London, before joining the University of Leeds over 15 years ago.

With a keen interest in music, sport and travel, Professor Blair regularly attends the Leeds International Concert Series in the Town Hall and Opera North. He commented: "First and foremost I support Scotland in any sport, naturally. I support teams such as Heart of Midlothian and Arsenal in football and am a big F1 fan, Lewis Hamilton and David Coulthard are my favourite drivers."

He added: "I also enjoy eating out in my spare time and love French, Italian and Spanish food. I have a keen interest in travel and have lots of places I would like to visit, but at the moment I would like to travel in the Far East and Japan. I'm very interested in Japanese culture".