What is the secret to scientific innovation? According to Nancy Rothwell her own success comes from 'applying a bit of imagination to classical scientific approaches. The big breakthrough in science often comes from people who think laterally. Being gregarious helps. You make a lot of friends in science; it's a very social activity.'

Nancy is Professor of Physiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. She heads a research group of about twenty-five Ph.D students and young scientists. The group is investigating how the brain communicates with the immune system to co-ordinate responses to disease and injury, and the cause of damage to the brain in conditions such as strokes. She is Chair of the Division of Neuroscience and President of the British Neuroscience Association.

Academics often fall into one of two camps: those who love the thrill of pure research and those who thrive on the feedback from teaching. Nancy is inspired by both. She holds a medical research fellowship but she also loves training young scientists, and has a gift for finding simple ways of explaining complicated subjects.

In 1998, she gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture, 'Staying Alive: The Body in Balance'. More recently she gave two demonstration lectures, with experimentsm to over 1,000 children on 'Exploring Inner Space' at the British Association's Young Scientists event. She was once told that any good scientist should be able to explain their work to their grandmother, a lesson she has taken to heart.