KU News Release

Sir Colin Campbell and entrepreneurs to examine university risk-taking

LAWRENCE — An authority on higher education known around the world for innovation in research and technology transfer will lead bioscience executives in a team presentation during a much-anticipated Lawrence visit.

Sir Colin Campbell, vice chancellor of the University of Nottingham, is expected to address the necessity of universities to “take risk to promote opportunity.”

The event will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, in the Bruckmiller Room on the second floor of the Adams Alumni Center at the University of Kansas. It is free and open to the public. Seating is limited to 100 people.

The event is titled “The Evolution of a University Start Up; When Lightning Might Be Striking Twice.”

Campbell is associated closely with OncImmune, a leading European life sciences firm that last year placed its North American headquarters and commercial lab in Lenexa — near to KU’s cutting-edge cancer researchers.

OncImmune’s $30 million investment will create 120 new area jobs and help bring 20 new positions to KU over the next few years.

Other speakers at the event are John Robertson, professor of surgery at Nottingham University, whose lab developed the technology commercialized by OncImmune; Dr. Tony Barnes, CEO of OncImmune; and Geoffrey Hamilton-Fairley, OncImmune’s chairman.

The group will use the OncImmune example to show how universities can successfully transfer results from research labs into profitable and beneficial commercial undertakings.

“OncImmune is a company that got its start at Nottingham University as a result of Sir Colin’s courageous commitment to technology transfer,” said KU Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Richard Lariviere. “We are delighted that OncImmune has chosen to partner with KU.”

Internationally, Campbell is seen as a leading light in higher education. While a professor of jurisprudence at the Queen’s University in Belfast, he served as dean of the faculty of law and pro vice chancellor. Also, he has been a member of the United Kingdom’s University Grants Committee and Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals as well as the Board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Campbell was knighted in 1994 and appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire in 1996. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences and a former member of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights for Northern Ireland. Since 1988, Campbell has served as vice chancellor of the University of Nottingham.

“Sir Colin has guided the University of Nottingham during a time when it has grown considerably and earned a reputation for research around the world,” Lariviere said.

In addition to Campbell’s visit to KU’s Lawrence campus, his trip to the region includes tours of the KU Hospital’s Cancer Center, the Stowers Institute and the Kansas Life Sciences Institute.

The Adams Alumni Center is located at 1266 Oread Ave. Parking is available next to the center and across the street in the Mississippi Street parking garage.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.