Sir Philip CohenBack to Dundee Ambassadors

Sir Philip Cohen is a leading researcher and academic who has lived in Dundee for nearly four decades. He believes the city's quality of life and quality of work are a huge draw. His work has attracted some of the best scientists to the city, and he's fundraised more than £80 million over the last ten years for research into life sciences.

I came to Dundee in 1971, and the city was a breath of fresh air. I was 25 and living in Seattle but looking for an academic job in the UK. I had various offers but Dundee stood out for me because it offered such a fantastic opportunity. There was a brand new research building and at that time, unlimited space.  Its proximity to the sea and such beautiful countryside and only an hour to Glenshee Ski Centre was a huge draw. I have had a great deal of fun on the slopes over the years.  I've now spent 38 years in the city, and like to think of myself as an honorary Dundonian.

Everyone told me I was mad moving to Dundee - because it seemed so far away from London, and Dundee at that time had no scientific credentials. But it's only 400 miles from the south of England. I do travel a lot for my job but it's not a problem. The London flight is unbelievably important to Dundee and the life sciences. There will be times when of the 30 people on the flight, a third of them I know mainly from the university but also from other walks of life. What would be fantastic is a new air link to one of the international hubs like Amsterdam or Paris.

I call my office my ‘recruitment room' because it has such great views. If I really want to get someone to work here, I take them up to my office which has fantastic views looking west down the Tay Estuary. I've recruited hundreds of people to work here in the life sciences and I honestly think that many of them have looked out of the window and decided there and then that they want to come to live and work here.

The world's best scientists are coming to Dundee. There are two main reasons - one is the quality of the work being carried out here and the other is the quality of life on offer. People are often fed up living in big cities and spending all their time commuting. I always talk about the fact it takes me a whole eight minutes to travel between my home and my office! Then there's the fact that there are dozens of golf courses within 20 minutes of the city. I tell them that I have a garden that backs on to the Tay and that, as a keen ornithologist, I've spotted 120 different species of birds from there. People want to enjoy their non-scientific lives, as well as working hard.

Wild mushroom foraging has attracted some key talent to the city! Hunting for mushrooms is a popular hobby in many parts of Europe, and I've recruited key people here because I'll show them where they can find the best edible mushrooms in and around Dundee. It's one way that I recruit people - I find out what their hobbies are and I take them out to experience them and show them the amazing places that are so accessible from the city, such as Tentsmuir Forest or the cliff walk at Arbroath, where you can see dolphins very frequently and even the occasional killer whale!

Dundee's a great place to bring up kids.  I think the city is a fantastic place for families and the schools are very good. The Dundee High School has a great track record. My children were educated at the local State High School, Harris Academy, and did very well. For myself and my wife the fact that we could take our kids to school and spend time with them in the evenings rather than spending hours commuting every day and have a nanny look after them was a huge bonus.

People who come here don't tend to leave. Dundee is amongst the top locations in Europe for life sciences.  We recruit from around the world and there are 59 nationalities currently working in our building.  Yet despite having to compete with the strongest centres in the world, the Research Team Leaders we recruit stay here and don't want to leave. The local population who were born and brought up in this area also don't wish to leave and this stable population has allowed Dundee to set up the world's most complete set of health records. This has charted the treatment and health of all the diabetics in Tayside for decades and is an immensely valuable database for medical research.

More than 4,000 people now work in Dundee's life sciences sector. That accounts for 16% of the local economy, and I expect this percentage to grow to 20-25% of the economy over the next ten years. Another huge growth area is computer games technology. I have to admit that when the University of Abertay started offering BSc degrees in computer games technology some years ago I did think it was a bit of a ‘mickey mouse' subject to study. But I've certainly been proved wrong. There are 350 computer games companies employing almost 5,000 people and that's set to rise to 7,000 over the next couple of years.

Dundonians are friendly and generous. Colleagues or people who visit the city always remark on how people here are always happy and smiling. And people are very giving. My wife and I once spent 16 hours shaking tins in a local supermarket in order to raise money to build the Sir James Black Centre. We'd said we'd match whatever was donated. It was a very expensive weekend as we received more than a £1 a minute!