Virginijus Šikšnys named next EMBL Council Chair
Lithuanian scientist began his three-year term chairing EMBL’s Council
EMBL’s Council named leading Lithuanian biochemist Professor Virginijus (Virgis) Šikšnys as the next chair of this governing body. He assumed the position in January 2026 alongside newly elected Vice-Chairs of Council Professor Rein Aasland from Norway and Professor Savvas Savvides representing Belgium.
In addition to electing a new Chair and Vice-Chairs, EMBL Council also re-elected Doris Wohlfender-Bühler from Switzerland as Chair of its Finance Committee. Hemma Bauer from Austria was elected as new Finance Committee Vice-Chair. They also assumed office in January.
Lithuania joined EMBL as the organisation’s 27th member state in 2019. In 2020, EMBL and Vilnius University Life Sciences Center signed a framework agreement to establish the VU LSC-EMBL Partnership for Genome Editing Technologies, where Šikšnys is a scientific director. He takes over the position as EMBL Council Chair from Germany’s Peter Becker, who led EMBL’s Council since 2023.
Šikšnys is a Professor at Vilnius University and Chief Scientist at the Institute of Biotechnology. He is known for his research on CRISPR-Cas9, paving the way for new tools in genome editing. Šikšnys’s work has been recognised with numerous awards and prizes, including the Kavli Prize. He is also an elected member of Academia Europaea, EMBO, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters.
