Honorary Award recognises Contribution to British Life

Bioimaging pioneer Jason Swedlow, currently Professor of Quantitative Cell Biology in the University of Dundee's School of Life Sciences, has received an honorary Order of the British Empire in recognition of his stellar research career.

Conferred on foreign nationals to celebrate the contribution they have made to British life, Professor Swedlow was awarded the honour for his services to biological imaging, during a presentation at the City Chambers by Dundee’s Lord Provost Bill Campbell.

Born in Los Angeles he received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University and a PhD from UC San Francisco, moving into postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School before joining the University of Dundee in 1998.  

“I feel extremely honoured to receive this award, particularly as it is for services to bioimaging, something that I have dedicated my career to,” said Professor Swedlow. “For me, this is recognition for an extremely powerful and growing community of scientists that I feel privileged to be part of.

“Dundee has been my home since 1998 and I have turned down many offers to return to the US and chose to raise my family in Scotland because of the culture here. At our School of Life Sciences, I work alongside people from all over the world and the contribution we make to our fields is testimony to the benefits of a dynamic and diverse scientific community.”

Professor Swedlow’s research interests lie in the mechanisms and regulation of chromosome segregation and the development of software for handling and sharing large scientific image datasets. He is a co-founder of the Open Microscopy Environment (OME), an international consortium that develops and releases open source software for biological imaging.

He also founded Glencoe Software, Inc., which commercialises and customises OME technology for use in biotech/pharma R&D and data publishing, and BioImagingUK, a consortium of UK scientists that define strategic priorities for imaging in the life sciences. ProfessorSwedlow was named Social and Overall Innovator of the Year by the BBSRC in 2011 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012.

At the presentation Lord Provost Campbell said, “This honour recognises the achievements of Professor Swedlow over a distinguished career of scientific excellence. His important work has helped put Dundee on the map as a leading knowledge hub and he has helped forge an international reputation for our city. I would like to congratulate him for his ongoing efforts and for this award today.”

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