Michael DIXON
Natural History Museum (UK)
Became Director of the Natural History Museum in 2004. Since then, annual attendance at the Museum has increased from three to over five million a year and the £78 million Darwin Centre opened to widespread acclaim. From 2006-07, he served as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and he has since sat on the Department’s Science Advisory Committee. From 2009-13, he was Chair of the National Museum Directors’ Council.
Dixon studied zoology at the Imperial College and completed a doctorate at the York University, studying host location mechanisms in larval trematodes. From 1980-99 he worked in the publishing industry, for Pitman, Wiley and Thomson, latterly as the Group’s Managing Director. In 1999 he was appointed Director General of the Zoological Society of London, with its two zoos, a research facility named the Institute of Zoology, and a field conservation division.
Dixon is a trustee of the Royal Albert Hall and WWF-UK, and his academic appointments include the court of the University of Reading and Imperial College London, where he also chairs in the latter’s Research Ethics Committee. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2014, Dixon received a Knighthood for his services to museums.
