| Keynote speakers |
| Sir Mark Walport FRS FMedSci Jewels in the Crown session |  |
| Sir Mark is the Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government and Head of the Government Office for Science. Previously, Sir Mark was Director of the Wellcome Trust, which is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health by supporting the brightest minds. Before joining the Trust he was Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London. He is Co-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and has been a member of this since 2004. He has also been a member of the India UK CEO Forum, the UK India Round Table and the advisory board of Infrastructure UK and a non-executive member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He is a member of a number of international advisory bodies. He has undertaken independent reviews for the UK Government on the use and sharing of personal information in the public and private sectors: ‘Data Sharing Review’ (2009); and secondary education: ‘Science and Mathematics: Secondary Education for the 21st Century’ (2010). He received a knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to medical research and was elected as Fellow of The Royal Society in 2011. | |
| Professor David D’Cruz Heberden round session |  |
| Professor David D’Cruz MD FRCP. Consultant Rheumatologist, Louise Coote Lupus Unit, St Thomas’ Hospital, London. Professor D’Cruz is the Clinical Team Lead of this internationally renowned tertiary referral centre for autoimmune rheumatic disorders. His major clinical and research interests are systemic lupus erythematosus, the antiphospholipid syndrome and systemic vasculitis. He leads the Louise Coote Lupus Clinical Trials Unit which has a portfolio of investigator and industry led trials. His research portfolio includes a translational medicine programme in collaboration with basic science laboratories in the Division of Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Diseases, Kings College School of Medicine. He trained at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London. Senior House Officer and Registrar rotations at University College and the Royal London Hospitals were followed by a clinical registrar post and then an ARUK Clinical Research Fellowship at St Thomas’ Hospital. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Rheumatology at St Bartholomew’s and The Royal London Hospitals following a Senior Registrar post in General Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. Professor D’Cruz has published widely in the field of autoimmune rheumatic disorders. He is one of the Managing Editors of the journal Lupus and was Editor in Chief of the Journal of Autoimmune Diseases 2004-9. He was President of the Rheumatology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine 2008 – 9. | |
| Prof David L Scott Heberden oration session |  |
| David L Scott is Professor of Clinical Rheumatology at King’s College London and honorary Consultant Rheumatologist at King’s College Hospital. He trained in Leeds and Birmingham working with Professors Verna Wright, Kenneth Walton and Paul Bacon. He held Arthritis Research UK, Wellcome Trust and Royal College of Physician’s Fellowships and was Senior Lecturer at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School. He moved to King’s over 20 year ago to develop clinical outcomes and trials research complementing laboratory research led by Professor Gabriel Panayi. He has served the British Society for Rheumatology as honorary Secretary, Heberden Librarian and President and has also been editor of Rheumatology. | |
| Susan Oliver OBE Droitwich Medical Trust lecture |  |
| Susan is a Nurse Consultant in Rheumatology and Chair of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Standing Committee for Health Professionals. She qualified as a nurse in 1978 and worked for many years in the NHS, initially in areas such as intensive care and renal dialysis. She left the NHS, having set up the rheumatology nursing service in North Devon, to take up a role as the first independent nurse consultant in Rheumatology in 2003. She has previously held several senior level roles including, Chair of the Royal College of Nursing Rheumatology Forum in the UK (2004-2010), Chief Nurse Advisor for the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (2002-2009) and joint chair of the Rheumatology Futures Project (2009). Earlier in her career, she held the position of Director of the South West Branch of the British Lung Foundation, before returning to clinical work initially as a practice nurse and lecturer. She took up a secondary care post as a Lead Research Nurse and Data Cocoordinator for respiratory research before committing to a long term career pathway in Rheumatology as a specialist nurse. Susan was selected as one of fourteen Health Professionals in England to receive a Department of Health sponsored Social Enterprise course at Oxford University, Said Business School and has been honoured with various awards over the years. These include Professional Nurse of the year in 2000 for her nurse led services, Honorary Membership of the British Healthcare Professionals in Rheumatology in 2006, and an RCN Fellowship (FRCN) for her contribution to rheumatology nursing (2009). In 2014 she was honoured with an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. | |
