Professor Keith Gull (born 29 May 1948) is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Molecular microbiology at the

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. He was the principal of

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any universit ...

from 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2018, succeeding Michael Mingos.

Education

Gull was educated at Eston Grammar School and King's College London where he was awarded a first class

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in 1969 followed by a

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in 1973.

Career and research

On completion of his PhD, he moved to a lectureship at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

. He held a personal chair at Kent when he moved to the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

where he spent the 1990s involved with the development of the School of Biological Sciences as Head of Biochemistry and Research Dean. He moved to Oxford in 2002. He was Chairman of the

Biochemical Society The Biochemical Society is a learned society in the United Kingdom in the field of biochemistry, including all the cellular and molecular biosciences. Structure It currently has around 7000 members, two-thirds in the UK. It is affiliated with th ...

(1999–2002), and is a trustee of

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. According to

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and

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his most cited peer-reviewed scientific papers are on ''

Trypanosoma brucei ''Trypanosoma brucei'' is a species of parasitic kinetoplastid belonging to the genus ''Trypanosoma'' that is present in sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike other protozoan parasites that normally infect blood and tissue cells, it is exclusively extracel ...

'' and ''

Trypanosoma cruzi ''Trypanosoma cruzi'' is a species of parasitic euglenoids. Among the protozoa, the trypanosomes characteristically bore tissue in another organism and feed on blood (primarily) and also lymph. This behaviour causes disease or the likelihood of ...

''. More recently, the Gull laboratory has worked on ''

Leishmania ''Leishmania'' is a parasitic protozoan, a single-celled organism of the genus '' Leishmania'' that are responsible for the disease leishmaniasis. They are spread by sandflies of the genus ''Phlebotomus'' in the Old World, and of the genus '' ...

''. After nine years as Principal Professor of

, Gull retired at the end of the 2017-18 academic year, and was succeeded by Kathy Willis.

Controversy

During his tenure as Principal of St Edmund Hall, he was alleged to have exploited college finances by claiming £500 in “Christmas presents” and “gifts” between November and December 2015, and £185 on a desk lamp in November 2017. Gull defended his Christmas expenses claims, but not the desk lamp claim. In 2010, Gull attracted criticism by his students and the national press for the decision to spend £15,000 on a college snowdrop garden amid budget cuts. He defended the decision, claiming the snowdrops will be "fantastic", but apologised for the way in which it was made. In 2015, Gull declined requests to clarify the status of claims made by

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, son of Filipino dictator

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martia ...

, about whether he finished his degree at

Awards and honours

Among numerous prizes, fellowships, and other awards, Keith Gull was awarded the

Marjory Stephenson Prize The Marjory Stephenson Prize is the principal prize of the Microbiology Society, awarded for an outstanding contribution of current importance in microbiology. Marjory Stephenson was the second president of the Microbiology Society (1947 - 1949) a ...

from the

Society for General Microbiology The Microbiology Society (previously the Society for General Microbiology) is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with a worldwide membership based in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes and schools. It is the large ...

(1996), was elected Fellow of the

Academy of Medical Sciences The Academy of Medical Sciences is an organisation established in the UK in 1998. It is one of the four UK National Academies, the others being the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. Its mission is to ad ...

(1999), elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2003, and was appointed a

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in the 2004

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list for services to microbiology.http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/57155/supplements/8 "New Year Honours List 2004" He holds an honorary

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

from the

. His certificate of election to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

reads: Gull was elected a member of the

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

(EMBO) in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gull, Keith 1948 births Living people Alumni of King's College London British microbiologists Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellows Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization English microbiologists Academics of the University of Kent Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford Principals of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Middlesbrough