NIHR Senior Investigators

NUH NIHR Senior Investigators Short Biographies

Senior Investigators are the NIHR’s pre-eminent researchers and include some of the nation’s most outstanding leaders of clinical and applied health and social care research.

  • Professor Christopher Hawkey

    Professor of Gastroenterology

    Christopher Hawkey, Professor of Gastroenterology

    Christopher Hawkey is Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Nottingham’s Wolfson Digestive Diseases Centre. His main interests are in the field of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and inflammatory bowel disease. In both areas his approach is to try to identify targets in small exploratory studies and then evaluate them in large and/or outcomes studies.

  • Professor Robin Spiller

    Professor of Gastroenterology, Director of NDDC NIHR Biomedical Research Unit

    Robin Spiller, Professor of Gastroenterology

    Professor Robin Spiller is currently Professor of Gastroenterology and Lead Director of the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre NIHR Biomedical Research Unit. He was Editor of Gut, an international journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, from 2003-2009. His main interest is in the pathophysiology of functional GI diseases, particularly focusing on the role of infection and inflammation in the irritable bowel syndrome. He has twice edited the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) Guidelines for the management of IBS and is a member of the board of the Rome Foundation, an international group which produced the Rome III criteria for the classification of the functional GI diseases. He was the founding chairman of the Neurogastroenterology and the Motility Section of the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG). He is the author/co-author of more than 203 scientific publications.

    Key Publications

    • Spiller R. & Garsed K, Postinfectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Gastroenterology 2009;136:1979-88.
    • Humes DJ, Solaymani-Dodaran M, Fleming KM, Simpson J, Spiller RC, West J. A population-based study of perforated diverticular disease incidence and associated mortality. Gastroenterology 2009;136:1198-1205.
    • Spiller R. Clinical update: irritable bowel syndrome. Lancet 2007;369:1586-1588.
    • Spiller R, Aziz Q, Creed F, Emmanuel A, Houghton L, Hungin P, Jones R, Kumar D, Rubin G, Trudgill N, Whorwell P. Guidelines on the irritable bowel syndrome: mechanisms and practical management. Gut 2007;56:1770-1798.
    • Spiller RC. Role of infection in irritable bowel syndrome. J Gastroenterol 2007;42 Suppl 17:41-47.
    • Longstreth GF, Thompson WG, Chey WD, Houghton LA, Mearin F, Spiller RC. Functional bowel disorders. Gastroenterology 2006;130:1480-1491.
    • Dunlop SP, Coleman NS, Blackshaw E, Perkins AC, Singh G, Marsden CA, Spiller RC. Abnormalities of 5-hydroxytryptamine metabolism in irritable bowel syndrome. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2005;3:349-357.
    • Coleman NS, Marciani L, Blackshaw E, Wright J, Parker M, Yano T, Yamazaki S, Chan PQ, Wilde K, Gowland PA, Perkins AC, Spiller RC. Effect of a novel 5-HT3 receptor agonist MKC-733 on upper gastrointestinal motility in humans. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2003;18:1039-1048.
    • Dunlop SP, Jenkins D, Spiller RC. Distinctive clinical, psychological, and histological features of postinfective irritable bowel syndrome. Am J Gastroenterol 2003;98:1578-1583.
    • Dunlop SP, Jenkins D, Neal KR, Spiller RC. Clinical and histological features of post-infectious IBS: relative importance of enterochromaffin cell hyperplasia, anxiety and depression. 125 ed. 2003:1651-1659.
    • Dunlop SP, Jenkins D, Neal KR, Naesdal J, Borgaonker M, Collins SM, Spiller RC. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of prednisolone in post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2003;18:77-84.

  • Professor Marion Walker

    Professor in Stroke Rehabilitation

    Marion Walker, Professor in Stroke Rehabilitation

    Marion Walker is Professor in Stroke Rehabilitation at the University of Nottingham. She is an occupational therapist by professional background. She is Past President of the Society for Rehabilitation Research and was Chairman of UK Stroke Forum from 2006-2008.

    Over the last 25 years Marion has led and steered many stroke rehabilitation research projects. Her trial involvement includes service evaluations of stroke patients not admitted to hospital, multi-disciplinary stroke teams, intermediate care, early supported discharge, day-centre care for young stroke patients and therapy provision in nursing homes. Her trial experience also involves evaluations of specific components of stroke therapy including leisure, dressing, outdoor mobility and behavioural approaches in patients with aphasia and depression.

    Marion currently leads a team of over 20 people in the Stroke Rehabilitation Theme of the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire & Lincolnshire. She is a strong advocate of patient partnership and chairs the Nottingham Stroke Consumer Group. Marion is also Associate Director for Rehabilitation and Associate Director for Portfolio Development of the UK Stroke Research Network and a trustee of the Stroke Association.

  • Professor Hywel Williams

    Professor of Dermato-Epidemiology and Director, Centre of Evidence-Based Dermatology

    Hywel Williams, Professor of Dermato-Epidemiology

    Hywel Williams is Professor of Dermato-Epidemiology and Director of the Centre of Evidence-Based Dermatology at the University of Nottingham. The Centre includes the Cochrane Skin Group (identifying research gaps), the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network (addressing those gaps through randomised controlled trials) and the Skin Disorders Specialist Library (mobilising new knowledge into the clinical community). He is founder and past director of the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit, and he chaired NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme for East Midlands 2006 to 2009. Since January 2009, Hywel has chaired the NIHR HTA Commissioning Board and has been deputy director of the NIHR HTA Programme.

    With a particular interest in childhood eczema, Professor Williams works as a clinical dermatologist at Nottingham where he and his team run an award-winning eczema clinic. He has published over 280 peer reviewed papers and raised over £7m in external research funding over the last seven years. As an advocate of evidence-based medicine, he works with healthcare users and within multidisciplinary teams to conduct high quality applied research that informs NHS practice.