John Skehel

Sir John James Skehel (born 27 February 1941) is a British virologist and Emeritus scientist at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Education and early life Skehel was born in Blackburn to Joseph and Annie Skehel in 1941, and was educated at St. Mary's College, Blackburn and subsequently went to the University of Aberystwyth where he obtained a BSc degree in agricultural biochemistry.

He then completed his postgraduate study at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), where he received his PhD degree in biochemistry in 1966 under the supervision of Alan Eddy, for research on cation transport in yeast.

Career and research Following his doctorate, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Aberdeen

Awards and honours He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1984. In 1998, he became a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci). In November 2013, he was appointed Vice-President and Biological Secretary of the Royal Society. He was made an honorary professor of Liverpool John Moores University in 1993 and given an honorary fellowship in 2007. In 2004, he was also awarded an honorary DSc degree from University College London. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Personal life Soon after graduating he married Anita Varley in 1962, with whom he has two sons.