Professor Kim Nasmyth is currently the Whitley Chair and Head of Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford. Professor Nasmyth was formerly the Director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna.

His scientific work has addressed the mechanisms by which genes are turned on and off during development, how DNA replication is controlled, and how chromosomes ensure their segregation during mitosis and meiosis. He has received recognition through several awards, including Österreichisches Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst/Ministry of Science (2007), Gairdner International Award (2007), Richard M. Furlaud Distinguished Lecture/The Rockefeller University (2005), Honorary Doctorate/University of York (2003), the Boveri award for Molecular Cancer Genetics (2003), the Croonian Lecture/Medal of the Royal Society (2002), the Austrian Wittgenstein Prize (1999), the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1997), the Unilever Science Prize (1996), and the FEBS Silver Medal (1995). He is a fellow of the Royal Society (1989), a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1999), and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999).