{credit}Image courtesy of Julian Davies{/credit}

Contributor Brady Huggett

Julian Davies has a long history in biotechnology research, particularly in antibiotics and resistance, and he also served as head of research at Biogen’s European division in the 1980s. But for more than 20 years now, he’s been at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he’s the principal investigator at the Davies Lab. I spoke to Julian for the Nature Biotechnology First Rounders podcast, which was recorded in his office on the UBC campus, with the door closed to help with audio quality, and the overhead lights off. A light rain fell against his office window.

We talked at length about his early family life during World War II, his education in chemistry and biology, and his research across countries. A Nature Biotechnology profile in 2008 had covered TerraGen, Davies’ spinout from UBC, and it’s a topic in the podcast, too. But the element that perhaps stands out most is his eagerness to move around: he’s lived in New York, Manchester, Boston, Paris, Geneva, and beyond – partly to follow research he found interesting, and partly, it seems, because he was perpetually invited to work alongside others. This willingness to relocate helped facilitate his career, as well as allowed him to see the world.

Hear more about Julian’s life on the Nature Biotechnology First Rounders podcast.

Brady Huggett is the Business Editor for Nature Biotechnology