What brought you to BSMS and what has your career looked like until this point?
I came to BSMS right at the start, having worked at Imperial (Hammersmith Hospital) for years as an academic rheumatologist working mainly on lupus, and also leading the Clinical Department of Medicine. I ‘followed’ Jon Cohen down when he was appointed Dean, and was the first (and thus far, only) Professor of Medicine. Although my research credentials were reasonable, I had little/no idea what was involved in setting up a medical school, and pretty limited experience of undergraduate teaching.
I will never forget that when I first arrived 22 years ago, BSMS essentially comprised three of us – all in offices off a dark corridor in Westlain house – Jon Cohen, Peter Dennis, and myself – no curriculum, no students, no secretary, no computer, no buildings, no new academic colleagues….. no nothing! At that time it was perceived that BSMS clearly had great potential, so thankfully we were able to appoint excellent colleagues, academic and managerial, to help, so as a team we managed somehow.
What is your favourite thing about working at BSMS?
As others have said, it was mainly my colleagues who made my time as Chair of Medicine enjoyable. I had never worked in a campus-based university, and coming from Imperial and Cambridge, a certain amount of academic ‘re-calibration’ was required. Academic colleagues from both Sussex and Brighton were enormously supportive, as were the physicians and surgeons at the hospital, which was a very different place in those days to how it is now. Establishing both clinical and academic credibility as a relatively ‘young’ new professor was certainly a challenge though.
The most stimulating thing at the start was having a pretty blank canvas to work with, and it was certainly satisfying to have the opportunity to help create something from scratch.