Benjamin D. Simons is Director of the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. After graduating in Cambridge with a PhD in theoretical physics, he undertook postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1995, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in the Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, becoming appointed to a personal chair in 2002. Currently, he holds the Herchel Smith Chair in Physics and a Royal Society EP Abraham Professorship in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. His research combines experimental, mathematical and computational approaches to study the control of cell fate decision-making in epithelial tissues, using genetic mouse models and 3D organ cultures. His interest spans a broad range of subject areas, from the mechanisms that regulate the development, maintenance, and regeneration of epithelial tissues to how these programmes become dysregulated in the transition to diseased and cancerous states. He is a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of the Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society.