New Appointments

Professor Ron Hay
Chair of Molecular Biology

Professor Hay joined the Faculty of Life Sciences in October from the University of St Andrews where he was Professor of Molecular Biology and deputy director of the Centre for Biomolecular Sciences.

Born in Dundee and educated at the city's Harris Academy he studied biochemistry at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh before heading west to complete a PhD at the MRC Virology Unit in Glasgow in 1979.

Professor Hay then moved to the USA to take up a post-doctoral position at Harvard. In 1982 he returned to Scotland and the MRC's virology unit, where he remained for three years until he was recruited as a "New Blood" lecturer at St Andrews University.

Posts as reader, professor, head of division and deputy director of the new centre for biomolecular sciences followed before he returned "across the water" to Dundee and the newly opened Centre for Disciplinary Research at the faculty of life sciences.,

His current research interests include the mechanisms that control gene expression and recent collaborations include research with laboratories in Dundee, St Andrews and the USA.

He has published papers in a number of scientific journals including Cell, Molecular Cell, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology and the EMBO Journal.

Outside of the lab Professor Hay enjoys mountain biking and wine drinking although he does stress he tries not to do both at the same time!

Professor Jennifer Harris
Chair of Social Science

Professor Harris joins the Faculty of Education and Social Work from the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York.

A graduate of the University of Lancaster where she obtained a BA Honours in Social Work and a PhD in Social Policy and Administration, Professor Harris has researched and written widely on the subject of disability and social exclusion.

Her recent work includes a major study for the Department of Health on Outcomes for Disabled Service Users while recent publications have highlighted housing issues for disabled people and services for disabled asylum seekers.

She is the author of "The Cultural Meaning of Deafness" and "Deafness and the Hearing" and is a qualified user of British Sign Language.

Professor Harris is also on the editorial board of several journals including Disability and Society, Health and Social Care in the Community, International Journal of Qualitative Methodology and Social Work and Social Services Review.

She is currently developing a research programme on disability studies involving a series of linked multi-disciplinary projects with colleagues at Dundee and other universities in the UK, the Nordic countries and the USA.

Themes include the interface between disabled people and new technologies which is being developed with the Social Dimensions of Health Institute and Applied Computing and research concerning disabled people in homeless populations which is being developed with the department of Nursing and partners from St Andrews and the USA.

Professor Jeremy Wyatt
Chair of Health Informatics

Professor Wyatt was appointed professor of health informatics in October having previously been associate director for research at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in London.

He was also visiting professor of health informatics at Oxford, City, Amsterdam and Porto Universities and reader in health information policy at UCL's School of Public Policy.

Professor Wyatt trained in hospital medicine in London and Glasgow before studying how to improve the quality of medical knowledge. A Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics he has written textbooks on evaluation methods, clinical knowledge management and health informatics.

In his new post he will be working closely with the Health Informatics Centre, a joint university- NHS resource supporting research on pseudonymised patient data. He is planning to investigate how to improve the ordering of tests and use of their results by clinicians and to validate clinical prediction rules as part of a broad eHealth research programme.

This will build on the Health Informatics Centre infrastructure and operating procedures, which allow access to tens of thousands of anonymised patient records charting the clinical practice of hundreds of Tayside clinicians.

When he is not working Professor Wyatt makes jewellery and commemorative sculptures from titanium and other materials and is a member of the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen.