Dame Angela Ruth McLean (born 31 May 1961) is professor of

mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development ...

in the Department of Biology, University of Oxford, and

Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government The UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) is the personal adviser on science and technology-related activities and policies to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister and the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet. They ...

Early life and education

McLean was born on 31 May 1961 in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

, the daughter of Elizabeth and Andre McLean. She was educated at Mary Datchelor Girls’ School,

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

, London, going on to study for a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in mathematics at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

where she was a student of

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

. She was taught mathematical biology by Jim Murray, and graduated in 1982. In 1987 she received her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Imperial College, London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

with a thesis on Mathematical models of the epidemiology of measles in developing countries, supervised by Roy M. Anderson.

Career and research

McLean's research interests are in the use of mathematical models to aid our understanding of the evolution and spread of infectious agents. Her research investigates how quickly infections grow inside individuals, and also how fast they spread amongst individuals. She has worked on infectious diseases of humans such as

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

human immunodeficiency virus The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of th ...

(HIV) and

measles Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German ''masel(e)'', meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, Vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus, measles v ...

, and on animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth, and scrapie. In 1990, McLean won a

Royal Society University Research Fellowship __NOTOC__ The Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) is a research fellowship awarded to outstanding early career scientists in the United Kingdom who are judged by the Royal Society to have the potential to become leaders in their fie ...

at the

, and between 1994 and 1998 was seconded to the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. Th ...

in Paris. Between 1998 and 2000 she became head of Mathematical Biology at the

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body (NDPB), and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds science, scient ...

's Institute for Animal Health. In 2000 she was appointed as Professor of

Mathematical Biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development ...

, University of Oxford and

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. In 1974, it was also one of the first men's colleges to admit women. It has 528 un ...

. Following the outbreak in 2001 of foot-and-mouth disease she served as a committee member on the independent review carried out by the Royal Society. The review, chaired by Sir Brian Follett, made recommendations from a scientific standpoint about how to prevent and combat further invasions of highly infectious livestock diseases. She has continued to serve in an advisory capacity to the UK government, including chairing the lead expert group for a policy futures project on reducing the risk of future disasters, including disease pandemics. She was a member of the

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for environmental quality, environmenta ...

(DEFRA) Science Advisory Council as well as the Department of Health's National Expert Panel on New and Emerging Infections. In 2005, McLean also became director of the Institute for Emerging Infections of Humans in the James Martin 21st Century School, Oxford. In 2008 she was elected as a senior

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

in theoretical life sciences at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

. In 2009 she was elected as a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS). From 2013 onwards McLean was involved in the restatement or synthesis of scientific evidence on key topic areas for policy. She co-authored a number of Restatements published by the Royal Society and the Oxford Martin School. The topics included: the health effects of low-level ionising radiation; neonicotinoid insecticides and insect pollinators; the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on wildlife; the control of bovine tuberculosis. In 2019 McLean was appointed as Chief Scientific Adviser to the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

, the first woman to be appointed to the post. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020-2021 she attended meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and was deputy to Sir

Patrick Vallance Patrick John Thompson Vallance, Baron Vallance of Balham (born 17 March 1960), is a British physician, scientist, life peer, and clinical pharmacologist who has served as Minister of State for Science in the Department for Science, Innovatio ...

, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA). Together with Professor Graham Medley she co-chaired the SAGE sub-committee Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O). She also contributed to some of the government's media briefings. In 2023 the

Cabinet Secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...

announced that McLean had been selected by the Prime Minister as the new

Government Chief Scientific Adviser The UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) is the personal adviser on science and technology-related activities and policies to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. They are also the head of the Government Office for Science. Many indiv ...

after an open competition, to succeed Sir Patrick Vallance. McLean is the first woman to be appointed to this post.

Awards and honours

Mclean's honours and awards include * 2009 – elected a

(FRS) * 2011 –

Gabor Medal The Gabor Medal is Awards, lectures and medals of the Royal Society, one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "acknowledged distinction of interdisciplinary work between the life sciences with other disciplines". The medal was creat ...

of the Royal Society * 2018 –

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE), in the

2018 Birthday Honours The 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by ci ...

* 2018 – elected a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

* 2018 – Weldon Memorial Prize * 2023 – elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

Personal life

Mclean married David van Oss in 1986. They have 2 daughters and 1 son together.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLean, Angela Ruth, Dame 1961 births 20th-century British zoologists 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British zoologists 21st-century British women scientists People educated at Mary Datchelor School Academics of the University of Oxford Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English biologists English ecologists English zoologists Members of Academia Europaea Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society Female fellows of the Royal Society Honorary Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Living people Mathematical ecologists Theoretical biologists British women ecologists British women zoologists