Professor Irene Tracey is Vice Chancellor at the University of Oxford. She is a former Warden of Merton College, Oxford, her alma mater. She is also Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Irene did her undergraduate and graduate studies in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. In 1997, Irene returned to Oxford and was a founding member of the now world-leading Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain. Irene was tenured in 2001 at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and was a medical tutor and Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford. From 2007 until 2019, Irene was appointed to the Nuffield Chair in Anaesthetic Sciences with Fellowship at Pembroke College, where she is now an Honorary Fellow. Until recently she was also Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Irene has served and continues to serve on many national and international committees, such as the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), British Neuroscience Association and Lundbeck Brain Prize Committee. She is currently appointed by government to the Council of the Medical Research Council and is President-elect of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). She is a passionate advocate for women in science.