Andrew Mackenzie
awmackenzie.bsky.social
Andrew Mackenzie
@awmackenzie.bsky.social

Associate Director of Strategy & External Relations, The Physiological Society (@physoc.bsky.social).

Trustee of Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine. Council Member of Parliamentary & Scientific Committee. Own views.

Education 27%
Computer science 13%

🌍 As the UK and world gets hotter, physiology has a critical role to play in shaping action that genuinely protects health.

➡️ Check out the report from the Global Climate and Health Summit and get involved: www.globalclimateandhealthsummit.org.
Global Climate and Health Summit
The 2025 Global Climate and Health Summit placed physiology and partnerships at the heart of climate and health. Read more
www.globalclimateandhealthsummit.org

🌳 Physiology also shows there are limits to adaptation. That is why slowing emissions and tackling the root causes of climate change must go hand in hand with protecting people now.

🩺 At @physoc.bsky.social our work focuses on the human limits behind the headlines. How heat affects the heart, brain, mental health and ability to work safely. Who is most at risk. And where physiological thresholds are being crossed long before systems adapt.

🥵 This is not just a climate statistic. It means physiological limits are being pushed more frequently: in other words, temperatures are reaching levels where the human body struggles to regulate heat, protect vital organs, and function safely.

🔥 Today, the @metoffice.gov.uk have confirmed that 2025 was the UK's hottest year on record. The 2nd hottest was 2022 and the 3rd hottest was 2023. All of the top 10 hottest years have been in the last two decades.

🎄 Lovely evening in parliament celebrating UK science at the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee Christmas Reception.

👍Great too see members from all over the world join us for our award ceremony and member forum. And the highlight was a fabulous President’s Lecture from Dame Sally Davies on leadership, influencing policy, and tackling antimicrobial resistance

🥳🍾🎈What a fantastic day at the @roysocmed.bsky.social to kick off @physoc.bsky.social 150th anniversary celebrations!

Huge credit to Lloyd’s Register Foundation for investing in the long term advancement of safety, prevention and learning. Exciting and important things to come!

There is also a clear role for physiology, particularly in understanding human limits, stress, fatigue, heat, and risk exposure, and how these shape real world safety outcomes in complex systems. These are areas @physoc.bsky.social explored at the the Global Climate & Health Summit earlier this year

There is a clear emphasis on evidence as a public good. Safety decisions are often made under pressure, with high stakes and complex trade offs. Improving access to robust, trusted evidence is essential if we are serious about reducing avoidable risk at scale.

The ambition of the new centre is clear and timely. They want to strengthen how evidence is generated, shared and used to prevent harm across sectors that underpin everyday life, from infrastructure and transport to energy and maritime.

A real pleasure to support the launch of the Lloyds Risk Register new Global Safety Evidence Centre last night - and what a beautiful, historic building!

🎉 Tomorrow at our Member Forum we begin our 150th year celebrations, by looking ahead to the next discoveries physiologists are advancing: how the body responds to the impacts of climate change, the transformational potential of precision medicine, & unlocking the opportunities of AI in healthcare.

🔬It was in this world that The Physiological Society was founded. Over the 150 years since, our members have transformed understanding of how the body works, laying the foundations for many of the advances in health and medicine we now take for granted.

💡Most people lived without electricity, antibiotics, or reliable sanitation. Average life expectancy in the UK was little over 40, driven by high infant mortality and the constant risk of infectious disease.

❓Why am I posting a photo of Queen Victoria? Because 150 years ago, Victoria was on the throne, Charles Darwin was still alive, Florence Nightingale was reshaping ideas about health and care, and Alexander Graham Bell had only just patented the telephone…

Chimes with a report by @physoc.bsky.social & NCUB: the challenge is not the appetite to engage, but the lack of consistent structures, incentives & pathways to translate knowledge into sustained real-world impact.
www.physoc.org/policy/knowledge-exchange/translating-knowledge-research-into-impact/
Translating Knowledge and Research into Impact
www.physoc.org

That points to something structural: we have built a system that is good at pushing ideas out, but much less good at pulling them into widespread use, scale and productivity growth.

Read the report here:

www.ncub.co.uk/insight/stat...
State of the Relationship report 2025 - National Centre for Universities & Business
NCUB’s annual State of the Relationship report is an evidence tool to strengthen collaboration between universities and businesses.
www.ncub.co.uk

Collaboration remains a real strength of the UK system, but the report is clear that momentum has slowed. Activity is still there, but growth has levelled off and the depth and value of partnerships are under pressure.
State of the Relationship report 2025 - National Centre for Universities & Business
NCUB’s annual State of the Relationship report is an evidence tool to strengthen collaboration between universities and businesses.
www.ncub.co.uk

A really insightful launch of @ncub.bsky.social State of the Relationship report today.

And congratulations to the Openness Award winners. The Awards recognise best practice in openness on animal research. I’ve really enjoyed being on the judging panel over the last few years and this year had so many strong nominations.

Fantastic evening at @rcphysicians.bsky.social for the @animalresearch.bsky.social Paget Lecture with Sarah Gilbert. A really great lecture on the development of vaccines against outbreak pathogens.