Interviews with Clinical Academics

Prof Alex Rothman is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow and Professor of Cardiology at The University of Sheffield. He is also an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. His focus for research culture aims to benefit both patients and people in the research team.

Dr Ruth Payne has a dual professional identity as a Consultant Microbiologist for the National Health Services (UK) as well as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sheffield. Her interest in malaria vaccines may have been the starting point for her research career, but her expertise in vaccines became the corner stone of her ability to contribute to the Covid vaccine development efforts.

Prof. Thushan de Silva is an Infectious Diseases Clinician Scientist. His research journey started during his medical training and continued thanks to several clinical fellowships that have allowed him protected time to build his research portfolio alongside continuing clinical work.

Dr Joby Cole is an Infectious Diseases and Acute Medicine Consultant for the National Health Services and an honorary lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He has held several clinical fellowships to enable him to undertake research alongside his clinical work. His current motivation is to give all patients the opportunity to get involved in clinical research projects, as participation in research improves outcomes. He is also interested in contributing to novel ways of detecting microbial resistance that would allow fast identification of resistance and a faster approach to prescribing to right antibiotics to patients.