Irene Tracey

Irene Mary Carmel Tracey (born 30 October 1966) is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and former Warden of Merton College, Oxford. She is also Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and formerly Pro-Vice-Chancellor (without portfolio) at the University of Oxford. She is a co-founder of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) now the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging. Her team’s research is focused on the neuroscience of pain, specifically pain perception and analgesia as well as how anaesthetics produce altered states of consciousness. Her team uses multidisciplinary approaches including neuroimaging.

Early life and education

Tracey was born at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and educated at St. Thomas More R.C. Primary School and Gosford Hill School in Kidlington. She completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at Merton College, Oxford in Biochemistry under the supervision of Eric Newsholme and George Radda. She graduated with joint-top first class degree winning the Gibb’s Prize as an undergraduate and was a Wellcome Trust prize student and senior scholar at Merton College for her graduate work. Her graduate research was supervised by Jeffrey F. Dunn and investigated the use of magnetic resonance imaging methods to study disease in humans.

Career

As an early career researcher, Tracey held a postdoctoral position at Harvard Medical School working at the MGH-NMR (now Martinos) imaging centre applying magnetic spectroscopic techniques to understand AIDS Dementia Complex. It was during this period that she became interested in the field of pain, the research field she would eventually focus on. In 1997, Tracey returned to Oxford and was a founding member of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), now the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging she was its Director from 2005 until 2015. Tracey was appointed university lecturer in 2001 at the now named Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and was a medical tutor and Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford From 2007 until 2019, Tracey was appointed to the Nuffield Chair in Anaesthetic Sciences with Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she is now an Honorary Fellow. In October 2016, she became Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences – a department of over 500 scientists and clinicians drawn from neurology, ophthalmology and anaesthetics.

In October 2017, Tracey was announced as the next Warden of Merton College, Oxford, in succession to Sir Martin Taylor. She was installed as Warden on 5 October 2019, becoming the college’s 51st warden.

On 9 May 2022, it was announced that Tracey would be the next Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, with effect from 2023, in succession to Louise Richardson. She said of her nomination: ‘I am deeply committed to growing Oxford's impact through supporting its ground-breaking discovery research, its excellence in teaching and its drive to create a global innovation powerhouse.’

Alongside roles within the University, Tracey has served and continues to serve on 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 (MRC), and is President of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). She is a passionate advocate for women in science and is involved in several mentorship schemes. As Warden of Merton College, she was an advocate for greater inclusion and diversity.

Tracey still teaches undergraduate medical students about pain and imaging through lectures and the occasional tutorial. She has successfully supervised 35 doctoral students and over 20 postdoctoral (clinical and basic) fellows. Many of these former members now have permanent faculty positions and professorships.

Research

Tracey's research centers on investigating what she calls "the cerebral signature for pain perception" − how key regions of the human brain give rise to pain − and on developing objective, reliable, scientific ways of measuring what has always been considered a highly subjective experience. In particular, Tracey and her colleagues have used fMRI brain scanning techniques to discover the various neural sites and mechanisms that underlie pain, to distinguish between the experience of pain and the anticipation of that experience, and to explore differences in how people experience the same pain in different ways at different times. Her team has also investigated how pain-relief treatments can produce altered states of consciousness and how religious beliefs can affect and alleviate pain. One key finding is that pain is complex and cognitive, and, in Tracey’s words, "sensitive to various mental processes such as the feelings and beliefs that someone has", so it doesn't arise exclusively from a single painful input, such as a pinprick or burn. Her objective is to improve the understanding of chronic pain, its diagnosis, and treatment, partly through the development of more effective drugs.

Awards and honours

In 2008, Tracey was awarded the triennial Patrick Wall Medal from the Royal College of Anaesthetists and in 2009 was made an Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FRCA) for her contributions to the discipline. She won the Suffrage Science award in 2014.. In 2015 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and in 2017 won the Feldberg Foundation prize, followed in 2018 by the British Neuroscience Association’s Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience award. In 2020, Tracey was elected a member of the Academia Europaea (MAE), and in 2022 she has been elected an honorary fellow of The Physiological Society. In the 2022 New Year Honours List, Tracey was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to medical research. She received her CBE from Charles III at Windsor Castle on 16 November 2022 during the first Investiture held by His Majesty following his Accession.

Publications

Tracey has published over 200 original papers, Semantic Scholar lists her as a contributor to over 400 publications including the following publications:

* ''Pain 2012 Refresher Courses: 14th World Congress on Pain''
* ''Pain: A Ladybird Expert Book''
* ''Wall & Melzack's Textbook of Pain: Expert Consult''
* ''Dissociating Pain from Its Anticipation in the Human Brain''
* ''Exacerbation of Pain by Anxiety Is Associated with Activity in a Hippocampal Network''
* ''Imaging how attention modulates pain in humans using functional MRI''
* ''The Cerebral Signature for Pain Perception and Its Modulation''
* ''A common neurobiology for pain and pleasure''
* ''Neurocognitive aspects of pain perception''
* ''Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science''

Public engagement

Tracey is actively involved in public understanding of science, outreach and media activities. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4 (including ''Today'', '' All in the Mind'' and World Service/R4-WT's ''Exchanges at the Frontier''), BBC Radio 5 Live, and local radio stations.

She was the creator and presenter of a two-episode programme in 2017, ''From Agony to Analgesia''. This project led to an additional four-part BBC Discovery radio series that Tracey created and presented which aired in 2018, titled ''The Anatomy of Pain''.

Tracey's work has also been covered in two BBC ''Horizon'' TV documentaries; a Science Museum exhibition in London; public lectures at DANA, the Oxford Museum of Natural History, and the Cheltenham Science Festival; and multiple newspaper and magazine articles, including pieces in New Scientist, BBC ''Science Focus'', and ''Good Housekeeping''.

She has been profiled in ''The Lancet'' and ''The New Yorker'', interviewed in April 2019 for BBC Radio 4’s ''The Life Scientific'' with Jim Al-Khalili; and listed in '' The Times’'' Life Sciences Global Power List in 2020.

Personal life

Tracey married the climate physicist Myles Allen in 1994 and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tracey, Irene
Living people
1966 births
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)
Fellows of the Royal College of Anaesthetists
English neuroscientists
British women neuroscientists
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Wardens of Merton College, Oxford
Women heads of universities and colleges
Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford