Paul Nurse has been nominated as the next president of the Royal Society, considered Britain’s most prestigious scientific organization. The 61-year-old microbiologist is currently president of the Rockefeller University in New York City. Prior to his appointment at Rockefeller he headed Cancer Research UK, one of the country’s largest medical charities, and University of Oxford’s microbiology department.

Nurse shared the 2001 Nobel Prize for medicine for work on cell division, which he conducted while at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. The fellows of the Royal Society are widely expected to approve his nomination in an 8 July vote. Once approved, Nurse would begin his five-year term on 30 November.

Nurse would replace Martin Rees, a University of Cambridge astronomer who has headed the Royal Society since 2005.