We are delighted that Dr Kathy Niakan will be the next Director of the CTR from October 2020. Kathy was one of the first Next Generation Fellows in the CTR, and went on to become a group leader at the CRICK Institute in London. There, Kathy’s research has focussed on studying the mechanisms determining cell fate decisions in the human early embryo, in particular the origin of the trophectoderm lineage. Kathy has been elected to the Mary Marshall and Arthur Walton Professorship of the Physiology of Reproduction and will also help to support the inter-departmental University Strategic Research Initiative in Reproduction. We look forward most warmly to her rejoining the CTR, and contributing to our research strengths in trophoblast and placental biology.