ProfessorVincent Savolainen
Associate Dean (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion)
Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) - Faculty of Natural Sciences
- Associate Dean (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion)Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) - Faculty of Natural Sciences
- N.1-17, Munro, Silwood Park, United Kingdom
BIO
Professor Vincent Savolainen is Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and Professor of Organismic Biology in the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London. He is the founder of the Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, a College initiative that convenes multidisciplinary researchers to address the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. A leader with formal executive training, Professor Savolainen served as Deputy Head of the Department of Life Sciences (Head of Silwood Park Campus) from 2013 to 2016. Prior to joining Imperial College in 2007, he spent nine years at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Professor Savolainen is a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. His contributions to science have been recognised through numerous prestigious distinctions, including the Linnean Society's Bicentenary Medal (2006), a European Research Council Advanced Grant (2008), the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2009), the Coincy Medal for Botany (2014), the Royal Society Research Merit Award, and a Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship. In 2014, he was elected a Member of EMBO. He was admitted to the Freedom of the City of London and appointed a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers in 2026.
Professor Savolainen's research group integrates field ecology, molecular phylogenetics, and population genomics to address fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and conservation science, from understanding the origins of biodiversity to developing solutions for its preservation in a rapidly changing world. His recent work also investigates the evolutionary and biological basis of sexual orientation, contributing to one of the most intriguing open questions in Darwinian theory.
Current group members:
Dr Marco Balducci
Dr Louis Bell-Roberts
Theo Brooks
Jeremie Morel
Katarina Piponi
Postdoc available
FACULTY
- Faculty of Natural Sciences
POSITION NAME
- Associate Dean (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion)