Dame Bridget Ogilvie has had a distinguished career both in science and in the service of science. Dame Bridget became internationally renowned for her research on parasitology in a career that spanned twenty years. Later, as Director of the Wellcome Trust, she contributed enormously to science education and the funding of medical research in Britain, and also in Australia through the prestigious Wellcome postdoctoral fellowships. One of her most significant contributions as Director was the establishment of the Sanger Institute near Cambridge devoted to the study of genomics. Since her retirement, Dame Bridget has been engaged in a large portfolio of non-executive appointments in research, education and industry, championing research into tropical diseases and cancer, and continuing to play a very significant and fruitful role in science education and public engagement with science.