John Burn (geneticist)

Sir John Burn (born 6 February 1952) is a British professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University and senior leader in England's National Health Service.
Education.
Burn was born and raised in the North East of England. He was educated at Barnard Castle Grammar School, (now Teesdale School) and Newcastle University Medical School from 1976 to 1980 where he was awarded a Bachelor of Medical Sciences (BMedSci) degree in 1973, a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB BS) in 1976 and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in 1991.
Career and research.
Burn has been Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University since 1991 and a consultant specialist since 1984. He is a recognised authority on the genetics of cancer. He led the regional NHS Genetics Service for 20 years and helped to create the Centre for Life which houses an education and science centre alongside the Institute of Genetic Medicine and Northgene Ltd, the identity testing company he launched in 1995. He chairs DNA device company QuantuMDx.
Between 2014 and 2018, he was a non-executive director of NHS England. In 2016, he was appointed Executive Chairman of Global Variome Ltd, a not-for-profit company supporting services to the international coordination work of the Human Variome Project.
In 2017, he became Chair of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Awards and honours.
In 2010, Burn was appointed Knight Bachelor by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for outstanding services to medicine.
He was chosen as one of the first 20 ‘local heroes’ to be commemorated with a brass plaque on Newcastle Quayside in 2014, and the following year, he received the Living North award for services to the North East 2000 – 2015. 
Media interest.
He was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for "The Life Scientific" on Radio 4 first broadcast in February 2018.