Members

In the coming months we will be recruiting for a new Chair and members. If you are interested in hearing more about either of these opportunities please contact the Council Secretary, Adrienne Hunt at EGCinfo@wellcome.ac.uk.

The Ethics and Governance Council, chaired by Professor Graeme Laurie of the University of Edinburgh, is made up of members coming from a variety of perspectives, including ethics, law, medicine, medical science, social science, public consultation and community and consumer involvement. An independent Appointments Committee selected the members of the Council through a process that was in conformity with the Nolan Principles of Public Life.

Professor Graeme Laurie (Chair)

Graeme Laurie is currently Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law. His research interests include the role of law in promoting and regulating science, medicine and technology. In 2001 he convened a WHO working group that produced international guidelines on the establishment and maintenance of genetic databases. He was a member of the Interim Advisory Group on Ethics and Governance for UK Biobank that advised the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council on the development of the Ethics and Governance Framework. He is Chair of the Privacy Advisory Committee for Scotland, a member of the NHS Central Register Governance Board and a member of the Scottish Executive Generation Scotland Advisory Board. He is a member of the editorial boards of four medico-legal journals and co-series editor of the Cambridge University Press series on Medicine, Law and Ethics. His publications include the monograph Genetic Privacy: A Challenge to Medico-legal Norms, published by Cambridge University Press in 2002.

Dr Jonathan Hewitt

Dr Jonathan Hewitt is a consultant Geriatrician for Portsmouth NHS Trust where he leads a team responsible for a large acute geriatric ward. He is a trained epidemiologist whose PhD investigated the prevalence and complications associated with diabetes in a large group of community based people aged 75 and over. With a particular interest in diabetic epidemiology and his broad experience of acute general and geriatric medicine, Dr Hewitt is pursuing a career combining service, teaching and research. He has written a number of peer reviewed publications and a book.

Professor Roger Higgs MBE

Roger Higgs is professor emeritus and former deputy head of division at GKT School of Medicine, King's College, London. He retired from the Department of General Practice and Primary Care at King's at the end of July 2004, and until March this year worked as a general medical practitioner within the inner city practice that he founded in 1975. He has had eighty papers and six books published in the fields of medical ethics and general practice. He also chairs the Steering (Editorial) Committee of the Journal of Medical Ethics and sits on various committees for bioethics and healthcare organisations. He has been a leader in developing teaching of general practice and an innovator in NHS service change at the interface between primary and secondary care.

Professor Ian Hughes

Ian Hughes is a professor of pharmacology at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds. He is Chair of Leeds Mental Health NHS Teaching Trust and has held non-executive Director appointments in the NHS since 1986. Professor Hughes' research has focussed on both the scientific and educational aspects of pharmacology and he has published over seventy refereed full papers. He is currently Vice-President (Academic Development) of the British Pharmacological Society and a lay member of the General Osteopathic Council.

Dr Roger Moore OBE

Roger Moore is an engineer by profession with broad interest in public policy and citizen involvement. In 2006 he retired as chief executive of the NHS Appointments Commission after a varied career within academia, the Department of Health and the National Health Service. Within the Commission he established procedures, in accordance with the Nolan principles, for the recruitment and appointment of lay people as chairs and non-executives to the boards of NHS and other public bodies sponsored by the Department of Health. He was also responsible for the training of non-executives and has lectured widely on the principles of NHS governance. He has extensive experience of formulating, managing and delivering healthcare policy and within the NHS previously served as Deputy National Director of the Blood Transfusion Service where he was responsible for the national coordination of donor recruitment as well as the introduction of formal systems of quality assurance.

Ms Tracey Phillips

Tracey Phillips has over 20 years experience as a business and management consultant working in the private and public sectors. Originally established as a consultant to design and implement quality management systems, her experience now includes business plan development, start-up support, stakeholder engagement and implementation and audit of health and safety, environmental and other regulatory standards. Her professional work focuses on public policy, in particular in the fields of public health, social welfare and community cohesion. She is currently a member of the National Community Forum and belongs to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence PSHE public health guidance development group. She also works in the voluntary sector, recently acting as Chair of the Central Manchester Primary Care Trust Board Local Area Group, involving strategic input to the development and implementation of public health policy for Manchester.

Professor Martin Richards

Martin Richards is Emeritus Professor of Family Research and former Director of the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, which he founded in 1967. Since his retirement he has continued to conduct research at the Centre and to teach Ph.D. and M.Phil students. His research as a social scientist focuses on parent-child relationships, aspects of family life and genetics and reproductive technologies. Professor Richards is currently a member of the Ethics and Law Committee of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. He was previously a member of the Human Genetics Commission and of two Working Parties of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

Mr Andrew Russell

Andrew Russell recently retired from his role as Chief Executive of the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (ASBAH). As Chief Executive he had responsibility for ensuring good governance and also managed the Association's research programme. He has substantial experience of campaigning on policy issues and, with an interest in user representation, he established and helped manage a forum of disabled adults dedicated to training people in independence skills. He also has experience in user involvement in services policy and management. He previously Chaired the Neurological Alliance, a coalition of over 50 national charities which campaigns for improved medical services for people with all neurological conditions and he is currently a 'patient and public involvement' Board member on the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, a partnership of organisations working to establish the UK as a world leader in clinical research, by harnessing the power of the NHS.

Mrs Margaret Shotter

Margaret Shotter has considerable experience in research ethics in both the UK and Canada. She served as a member of the Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee for Scotland for several years before moving to Vancouver. At the University of British Columbia (UBC) she provided advice to the Vice President of Research on ethical and regulatory aspects of research involving human subjects at the University and all its affiliated research institutions. She was responsible for the management of UBC Research Ethics Boards, and for ensuring compliance with applicable regulatory standards in the review of human subject research. During her career as a biostatistician at the University of Edinburgh, she became especially interested in the inter-relationship between scientific merit and ethical aspects of research. Margaret Shotter serves as a lay member of three Expert Advisory Groups which are sub-committees of the Commission on Human Medicine.

Professor Heather Widdows

Heather Widdows is Professor of Global Ethics at the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics, University of Birmingham. With a background in Moral Philosophy, she works on the conceptual issues of Global Ethics. Her research interests include: the foundations of moral value from a philosophical perspective; communication across belief-systems and value frameworks in the context of liberal democracies; and bioethical issues, particularly, reproductive, research and genetic ethics. In 2005 she was a visiting fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked on liberal values and issues of moral neo-colonialism. She was sole leader on the Property Regulation in European Science, Ethics and Law Project which compared models of regulation in such issues as patenting of the human genome and property in human tissue. Professor Widdows is Chair of the Global Studies Association and Editor of the Journal of Global Ethics.

Professor Paolo Vineis

Paolo Vineis is Chair of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College London. His research interests include the development and application of biomarkers to environmental and cancer epidemiology. He has been working for many years on the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, where he is Principal Investigator for the Torino (Italy) centre. He also acts as coordinator of EPIC's lung cancer and lymphoma working groups. With an interest in ethical issues he has published several papers on the implications of genetic testing and sits on Italy's College of Physicians' ethics committee.

Ms Adrienne Hunt (Secretary)

Adrienne Hunt provides the administrative and executive support to the Council. Trained as a biochemist, she spent several years working on the Human Genome Project. During this time she was responsible for project and personnel management, including the co-ordination of the sequencing of human chromosomes 22 and 9. More recently, she worked in academia undertaking research on the ethical issues raised in the context of public health interventions and conducting an investigation of the law and practice relating to use of patents by governments with a focus on the provision of health care.

		UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council

Home How we operate Meetings and reports Members FAQs Recent activity Press relations An independent council funded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council		Members In the coming months we will be recruiting for a new Chair and members. If you are interested in hearing more about either of these opportunities please contact the Council Secretary, Adrienne Hunt at EGCinfo@wellcome.ac.uk. The Ethics and Governance Council, chaired by Professor Graeme Laurie of the University of Edinburgh, is made up of members coming from a variety of perspectives, including ethics, law, medicine, medical science, social science, public consultation and community and consumer involvement. An independent Appointments Committee selected the members of the Council through a process that was in conformity with the Nolan Principles of Public Life. Professor Graeme Laurie (Chair) Graeme Laurie is currently Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law. His research interests include the role of law in promoting and regulating science, medicine and technology. In 2001 he convened a WHO working group that produced international guidelines on the establishment and maintenance of genetic databases. He was a member of the Interim Advisory Group on Ethics and Governance for UK Biobank that advised the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council on the development of the Ethics and Governance Framework. He is Chair of the Privacy Advisory Committee for Scotland, a member of the NHS Central Register Governance Board and a member of the Scottish Executive Generation Scotland Advisory Board. He is a member of the editorial boards of four medico-legal journals and co-series editor of the Cambridge University Press series on Medicine, Law and Ethics. His publications include the monograph Genetic Privacy: A Challenge to Medico-legal Norms, published by Cambridge University Press in 2002. Dr Jonathan Hewitt Dr Jonathan Hewitt is a consultant Geriatrician for Portsmouth NHS Trust where he leads a team responsible for a large acute geriatric ward. He is a trained epidemiologist whose PhD investigated the prevalence and complications associated with diabetes in a large group of community based people aged 75 and over. With a particular interest in diabetic epidemiology and his broad experience of acute general and geriatric medicine, Dr Hewitt is pursuing a career combining service, teaching and research. He has written a number of peer reviewed publications and a book. Professor Roger Higgs MBE Roger Higgs is professor emeritus and former deputy head of division at GKT School of Medicine, King's College, London. He retired from the Department of General Practice and Primary Care at King's at the end of July 2004, and until March this year worked as a general medical practitioner within the inner city practice that he founded in 1975. He has had eighty papers and six books published in the fields of medical ethics and general practice. He also chairs the Steering (Editorial) Committee of the Journal of Medical Ethics and sits on various committees for bioethics and healthcare organisations. He has been a leader in developing teaching of general practice and an innovator in NHS service change at the interface between primary and secondary care. Professor Ian Hughes Ian Hughes is a professor of pharmacology at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds. He is Chair of Leeds Mental Health NHS Teaching Trust and has held non-executive Director appointments in the NHS since 1986. Professor Hughes' research has focussed on both the scientific and educational aspects of pharmacology and he has published over seventy refereed full papers. He is currently Vice-President (Academic Development) of the British Pharmacological Society and a lay member of the General Osteopathic Council. Dr Roger Moore OBE Roger Moore is an engineer by profession with broad interest in public policy and citizen involvement. In 2006 he retired as chief executive of the NHS Appointments Commission after a varied career within academia, the Department of Health and the National Health Service. Within the Commission he established procedures, in accordance with the Nolan principles, for the recruitment and appointment of lay people as chairs and non-executives to the boards of NHS and other public bodies sponsored by the Department of Health. He was also responsible for the training of non-executives and has lectured widely on the principles of NHS governance. He has extensive experience of formulating, managing and delivering healthcare policy and within the NHS previously served as Deputy National Director of the Blood Transfusion Service where he was responsible for the national coordination of donor recruitment as well as the introduction of formal systems of quality assurance. Ms Tracey Phillips Tracey Phillips has over 20 years experience as a business and management consultant working in the private and public sectors. Originally established as a consultant to design and implement quality management systems, her experience now includes business plan development, start-up support, stakeholder engagement and implementation and audit of health and safety, environmental and other regulatory standards. Her professional work focuses on public policy, in particular in the fields of public health, social welfare and community cohesion. She is currently a member of the National Community Forum and belongs to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence PSHE public health guidance development group. She also works in the voluntary sector, recently acting as Chair of the Central Manchester Primary Care Trust Board Local Area Group, involving strategic input to the development and implementation of public health policy for Manchester. Professor Martin Richards Martin Richards is Emeritus Professor of Family Research and former Director of the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, which he founded in 1967. Since his retirement he has continued to conduct research at the Centre and to teach Ph.D. and M.Phil students. His research as a social scientist focuses on parent-child relationships, aspects of family life and genetics and reproductive technologies. Professor Richards is currently a member of the Ethics and Law Committee of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. He was previously a member of the Human Genetics Commission and of two Working Parties of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Mr Andrew Russell Andrew Russell recently retired from his role as Chief Executive of the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (ASBAH). As Chief Executive he had responsibility for ensuring good governance and also managed the Association's research programme. He has substantial experience of campaigning on policy issues and, with an interest in user representation, he established and helped manage a forum of disabled adults dedicated to training people in independence skills. He also has experience in user involvement in services policy and management. He previously Chaired the Neurological Alliance, a coalition of over 50 national charities which campaigns for improved medical services for people with all neurological conditions and he is currently a 'patient and public involvement' Board member on the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, a partnership of organisations working to establish the UK as a world leader in clinical research, by harnessing the power of the NHS. Mrs Margaret Shotter Margaret Shotter has considerable experience in research ethics in both the UK and Canada. She served as a member of the Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee for Scotland for several years before moving to Vancouver. At the University of British Columbia (UBC) she provided advice to the Vice President of Research on ethical and regulatory aspects of research involving human subjects at the University and all its affiliated research institutions. She was responsible for the management of UBC Research Ethics Boards, and for ensuring compliance with applicable regulatory standards in the review of human subject research. During her career as a biostatistician at the University of Edinburgh, she became especially interested in the inter-relationship between scientific merit and ethical aspects of research. Margaret Shotter serves as a lay member of three Expert Advisory Groups which are sub-committees of the Commission on Human Medicine. Professor Heather Widdows Heather Widdows is Professor of Global Ethics at the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics, University of Birmingham. With a background in Moral Philosophy, she works on the conceptual issues of Global Ethics. Her research interests include: the foundations of moral value from a philosophical perspective; communication across belief-systems and value frameworks in the context of liberal democracies; and bioethical issues, particularly, reproductive, research and genetic ethics. In 2005 she was a visiting fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked on liberal values and issues of moral neo-colonialism. She was sole leader on the Property Regulation in European Science, Ethics and Law Project which compared models of regulation in such issues as patenting of the human genome and property in human tissue. Professor Widdows is Chair of the Global Studies Association and Editor of the Journal of Global Ethics. Professor Paolo Vineis Paolo Vineis is Chair of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College London. His research interests include the development and application of biomarkers to environmental and cancer epidemiology. He has been working for many years on the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, where he is Principal Investigator for the Torino (Italy) centre. He also acts as coordinator of EPIC's lung cancer and lymphoma working groups. With an interest in ethical issues he has published several papers on the implications of genetic testing and sits on Italy's College of Physicians' ethics committee. Ms Adrienne Hunt (Secretary) Adrienne Hunt provides the administrative and executive support to the Council. Trained as a biochemist, she spent several years working on the Human Genome Project. During this time she was responsible for project and personnel management, including the co-ordination of the sequencing of human chromosomes 22 and 9. More recently, she worked in academia undertaking research on the ethical issues raised in the context of public health interventions and conducting an investigation of the law and practice relating to use of patents by governments with a focus on the provision of health care. 215 Euston Road London NW1 2BE UK T +44 (0)20 7611 8888 F +44 (0)20 7611 8545