Professor of Infectious Diseases
University of Birmingham
About me
I am Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Birmingham, where I have spent most of my career working on host-pathogen interactions. I am also the current Gresham Professor of Physic, a public outreach and science communication role. From 2020-2025 I was Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency, before joining UKHSA as Chief Scientific Officer in September 2025.
Working on
I lead the CSO directorate and so have responsibility for our scientific staff, laboratory facilities, chemistry/microbiology/radiation work, etc. As well as overseeing our day-to-day scientific delivery, a big part of my role is to ensure UKHSA’s science remains globally excellent well into the future. I spend quite a bit of my time thinking about things like skills and training, future research projects and, of course, how to make our future home in Harwell a world-leading facility for science.