Fiona Watt, director of the Centre for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London, talks about excellence in science.

About Fiona Watt

"I'am EMBO Director (European Molecular Biology Organization), a group leader at EMBL Heidelberg and Professor at King’s College London.

My passion is understanding the stem cells of the human body and how they can be used to improve human health."

Key Points

• The classic definition of excellence in science is making discoveries which will then be published in important journals, obtaining funding for your research, a prestigious professorship and receiving a number of honours and prizes.
• Publishing your work is important because if you keep it to yourself, the field will not move forward.
• An excellent scientist is one who cares about the results and who exhibits some humility in the way they describe their science.

The classic definition of excellence

Most people would agree that the classic definition of excellence in science is making discoveries, which will then be published in classic journals such as Science or Nature. This would lead to success in obtaining competitive funding for your research in the form of grants, career progression in the form of a prestigious professorship, acquiring a number of honours, election to the Royal Society or the National Academy of Sciences and picking up a number of medals or prizes along the way – a Nobel Prize would be the pinnacle of prize-winning, but there are others. In achieving recognition from your peers, you might be asked to chair an advisory group to advise the government on a particular topic. You might be on the advisory panel of a research centre or an institute in another part of the world. These would be the classic hallmarks of excellence, from my perspective.