I am a surgeon, academic and university leader. I was president and vice chancellor of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, where I led an ambitious strategy to establish UNSW as one of the top 50 universities in the world. Prior to this I was dean of medicine and vice president of the University of Manchester and dean of medicine at University College London.
I qualified in medicine at the University of Cambridge and the University of London and trained as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, before specialising as a women’s cancer surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and University College London Hospital. I have for the last 35 years led a research team working on screening for ovarian cancer which included the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening.
In 1985, I founded the Eve Appeal charity, which funds research and raises awareness into gynaecological cancers, and in 2005 the Uganda Women’s Health Initiative.