Bryan Williams is Chair of Medicine at University College London (UCL) and a Consultant Physician at UCL Hospitals (UCLH). In 2023, he was appointed Chief Scientific Officer & Chief Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation where he oversees one of the world’s leading independent funding agencies for cardiovascular reseatrch . For over a decade previously he was Director of the NIHR University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Biomedical Research Centre and a member of the Senior Director Team and Board member of UCLH. He is an a NIHR Senior Investigator (now Emeritus), and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, recognition that he is one of the UK’s leading clinical scientists. In the King's New Year's Honours 2024 he was awarded an OBE for services to medicine.
Professor Williams research and clinical practice in the field of cardiovascular medicine and high blood pressure had led him to be recognised as one of the world's leading authorities and through which he has led or participated in many national and international clinical trials that have changed clinical practice. He has been President of the British Hypertension Society (2001-2003) and Chairman of the ESC Council on Hypertension (2016-2018), as well as Chairman of British, NICE (2012) and European Hypertension guidelines (2018) and co-author of International and European Societies of hypertension guidelines in 2020 and 2023 respectively. He is immediate Past-President of the International Society of Hypertension (2022-2024) and Fellow of the American Heart Association, European Society of Cardiology and Royal College of Physicians London.
He has been involved in numerous national research strategy committees and boards. He was previously Chairman of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Training and Careers Panel, Chairman of the Clinician Scientist Research Grant Awards panels for the MRC and the Department of Health, and member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Strategy Board. He was inaugural Chairman of the British Heart Foundation Clinical Studies Awards Panel (2017-2022).
In leading one of Europe’s largest Biomedical Research Centres he gained extensive experience in managing senior investigators and large and complex research programmes and multinational research initiatives across a wide variety of clinical disciplines, including; cardiovascular diseases. As Director of Research at UCLH, he oversaw one of the largest clinical research portfolios in the UK, ranging for from first in human complex trials, being one of Europe's Leading centres for advanced therapy and cell and gene therapy trials, through to large scale multi-centre phase 3 and 4 studies.
He has published over 600 research papers, many in leading journals. He has a current H-index of 124 and his work has been cited over 130,000 times. He was listed by Clarivate in 2022, 2023 and 2024 as one of the world's most influential and highly cited researchers. He has been the principal or co-principal investigator for over £300m research funding.
In the NHS, on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians London, he led the development of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) in 2012 and its update; NEWS2 in 2017, and championed its adoption by the NHS and many health care systems globally. The NEWS has been described as one of the most important safety innovations in the NHS for a generation, by improving the safety and outcomes for patients with acute illness. His innovation, research and clinical service to the NHS was recognised by the highest level (Platinum) clinical excellence award. In 2023 he received the President's Award from the Royal College of Physicians for his services to medicine.
He graduated in Medicine from the University of London in 1983 and completed his clinical and research training in London, Leicester, and at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, USA. He has received numerous national and international awards and was the recipient of the Times Higher Education University award, for “Outstanding Innovation and Technology” 2011 and the European Society of Hypertension Award 2014 for his "outstanding contribution to research, education and clinical practice in Europe" and recently the World Hypertension League International Clinical Research award, recognising his Clinical Research contribution globally. He has delivered numerous plenary lectures nationally and globally at major scientific and clinical conferences.
The RT Hall Lecture
RT Hall came to Sydney from England in 1853 on the vessel “Waterloo”. He was consumptive but managed to survive the long voyage, and made a complete recovery His affairs flourished and when he died in 1894, he established a trust initially for: “An invalid home for the reception, cure and treatment of culture for respectable, moral persons, residing in Sydney or its suburbs, and suffering from consumption of the lungs”. A sanitarium was established in the Blue Mountains in 1909 and was active till the early 1950s when the treatment of tuberculosis radically changed. The trust then looked for an alternative field to support and became involved in The National Heart Foundation. In 1959 and for a number of years, the bequest supported the RT Hall Lecturer. In more recent times, the bequest has supported the RT Hall Prize and the lectureship has been funded by a donation from The National Heart Foundation.
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