I am currently Professor of the History of Medicine and Founding Director of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health.  But my career has been checkered.  Having worked as a nurse initially, I studied medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School.  After qualifying in immunology in 1982 and medicine in 1985, and a short career in medical practice, I pursued doctoral research on the social history of infanticide and post-doctoral work on the history of `feeble-mindedness' at the Universities of Leeds and Manchester. My research interests focus broadly on the social and cultural history of science and medicine, with particular interests in the modern history of allergic diseases, such as asthma, hayfever and eczema, the history of stress, and the history of life transitions including the midlife crisis and retirement.  My publications include New-Born Child Murder: Women, Illegitimacy and the Courts in Eighteenth-Century England (1996), The Borderland of Imbecility: Medicine, Society and the Fabrication of the Feeble Mind in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain (2000), Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady (2006), Asthma: The Biography (2009), Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine (Ed., 2011), The Age of Stress: Science and the Search for Stability (2013), The History of Medicine: A Beginners Guide (2014, shortlisted for the Dingle Prize), The Routledge History of Disease (2017), Stress in Post-War Britain, 1945 - 85 (2015), Balancing the Sel;f: Medicine, Politics and the Regulation of Health in the Twentieth Century (edited with Martin Moore, 2020), and Broken Dream: An Intimate History of the Midlife Crisis (2021), as well as numerous other edited volumes, book chapters and journal articles.  I am currently completing a book on the history of a controversial case of infanticide and baby-farming in 1865.

I have a strong interest in developing and expanding the undergraduate medical curriculum and in creating opportunities for wider public engagement activities in radio, television, newspapers and schools. I have worked as Senor Academic Adviser (Medical Humanities) at the Wellcome Trust and have served as Chair of the Wellcome Trust History of Medicine Funding Committee, (2003-8), and the Trust's Research Resources Funding Committee (2008-13). I chaired the History sub-panel for REF 2021 and was a member of the sub-panel for REF 2014. I am co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Culture and Health and have served as a member of the WHO European Advisory Committee on Health Research and Chair of the WHO Euro Expert Group on the Cultural Contexts of Health.

Biography:

I am currently Professor of the History of Medicine and Founding Director of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health.  But my career has been checkered.  Having worked as a nurse initially, I studied medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School.  After qualifying in immunology in 1982 and medicine in 1985, and a short career in medical practice, I pursued doctoral research on the social history of infanticide and post-doctoral work on the history of `feeble-mindedness' at the Universities of Leeds and Manchester. My research interests focus broadly on the social and cultural history of science and medicine, with particular interests in the modern history of allergic diseases, such as asthma, hayfever and eczema, the history of stress, and the history of life transitions including the midlife crisis and retirement.  My publications include New-Born Child Murder: Women, Illegitimacy and the Courts in Eighteenth-Century England (1996), The Borderland of Imbecility: Medicine, Society and the Fabrication of the Feeble Mind in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain (2000), Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady (2006), Asthma: The Biography (2009), Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine (Ed., 2011), The Age of Stress: Science and the Search for Stability (2013), The History of Medicine: A Beginners Guide (2014, shortlisted for the Dingle Prize), The Routledge History of Disease (2017), Stress in Post-War Britain, 1945 - 85 (2015), Balancing the Sel;f: Medicine, Politics and the Regulation of Health in the Twentieth Century (edited with Martin Moore, 2020), and Broken Dream: An Intimate History of the Midlife Crisis (2021), as well as numerous other edited volumes, book chapters and journal articles.  I am currently completing a book on the history of a controversial case of infanticide and baby-farming in 1865.

I have a strong interest in developing and expanding the undergraduate medical curriculum and in creating opportunities for wider public engagement activities in radio, television, newspapers and schools. I have worked as Senor Academic Adviser (Medical Humanities) at the Wellcome Trust and have served as Chair of the Wellcome Trust History of Medicine Funding Committee, (2003-8), and the Trust's Research Resources Funding Committee (2008-13). I chaired the History sub-panel for REF 2021 and was a member of the sub-panel for REF 2014. I am co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Culture and Health and have served as a member of the WHO European Advisory Committee on Health Research and Chair of the WHO Euro Expert Group on the Cultural Contexts of Health.

Grant income:

Since 1991, I have been awarded over £13 million in research grants, including £8.7 million for the interdisciplinary Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health.

Editorial and professional positions - past and present:

Chair, History sub-panel, REF 2021

Member of the History sub-panel, REF2014

Chair, WHO Expert Advisory Group on Cultural Contexts of Health, 2014-20

Member, WHO European Advisory Group on Health Research, 2014-18

Chair, steering group for Exeter’s successful bid to become a UNESCO Creative City of Literature in 2019

External Assessor, Hong Kong University, Mock RAE, 2024

External Assessor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Mock RAE, 2024

REF Advisor, University of Hertfordshire, 2014-17, 2023-

REF Advisor, Liverpool Hope University, 2014-17, 2023-

AHRC COVID-19 Expert Peer Review Group, 2020-2022

Senior Academic Adviser, Wellcome Trust, 2013-16
Chair of the Wellcome Trust History of Medicine Grants Panel, 2003-8 (Member from 2000-3)
Member of the Wellcome Trust Research Resources in Medical History Panel, 2008- (Member from 2003)Chair of the Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Strategic Award Funding Committee, 2008-9
Member of the Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Strategic Advisory Group, 2002-8
Member of the Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Strategy Group, 2004-
Specialist Advisor, Panels 60 and 62, RAE 2008
Member of College of Reviewers, Canada Research Chairs Program, 2008-
Member of the Peninsula Medical School Board
Accreditation panel member, Museums Libraries and Archives Council, 2005-

Editorial board member for Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century, (Pickering & Chatto)

Reviews Editor, Social History of Medicine, 1997-2001
Member of Editorial Advisory Board, Medical Humanities.
Editor, Arts and Humanities section of Medical Education, (2002-3)

External Examiner, MPhil, University of Cambridge, 2024-
External Examiner, Newcastle University, MA in medical history, 2011-
External Examiner, Open University, History of Medicine, 2008-
External examiner, UCL Intercalated BSc in the History of Medicine, 2002-6
External examiner, University of Birmingham, Intercalated B.Med.Sc.(History of Medicine), 2001-4
External examiner, University of Cardiff, MA in History, 2003-6
Member of the Programme Committee of the Wellcome Trust Centre History of Twentieth-Century Medicine Group, 2001-
Chairman of the National Action Group for the integration of medical history into the medical curriculum, 2000-

Research supervision:

I supervise projects in the following areas:

1. The history of lifestyle, health and disease
2. The history of crime
   2. Histories of modern medicine including allergies, asthma and stress
   4. History of mental health
   
   

Qualifications:
BSc Immunology, 1st class

MB BS, London, with Honours in Pathology

PhD, Leeds

Prizes and scholarships:

2018    Royal Society Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture for contributions to the history of medicine
2017    Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
2006   Sydenham Medal, Society of Apothecaries
2001   Visiting Scholar, Institute for Medical Humanities, UTMB, Texas.
1987    British Academy, PhD studentship
1985    Nuffield Provincial Hospital Trust essay prize
1984    Second Charles Box Prize in Medicine, St. Thomas’s Hospital, London
1984    Medical Defence Union bursary for study in the Department of Pathology, UTMB, Texas
1982    Grainger BSc Prize in Immunology, St. Thomas’s Hospital, London
1981     Peacock Scholarship - top second-year pre-clinical student
1981     Grainger Basic Medical Science Prizes in Anatomy, Biochemistry,     Pharmacology and Physiology
1980    Tite Scholarship - top first-year pre-clinical student
1979    Open Scholarship, St. Thomas's Hospital, London