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Speakers


We are delighted that the following speakers have accepted our invitation to speak during the Annual Scientific Meeting.

This page will be updated with more information as it becomes available.

Professor Bryan Williams, UCLH/UCL, UK
Pickering Lecturer
Bryan Williams is Chair of Medicine at University College London (UCL) and Director of the NIHR UCL Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre and Director of Research at UCL Hospitals. He is a Consultant Physician at UCL Hospitals and a member of the Senior Director Team and Board member of UCL Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust. He is an a NIHR Senior Investigator (now Emeritus), and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

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 studies that have provided important insights into mechanisms of disease and changed clinical practice. He has been President of the British Hypertension Society (2001-2003), Chairman of the European Council on Hypertension of the ESC (2016-2018), and is President-Elect of the International Society of Hypertension. He has been a leader in translating scientific evidence into practice as Chairman of hypertension guideline development groups for the British Hypertension Society (2004), NICE (2011) and European Hypertension guidelines (2018) as well as co-author of the recent International Society of hypertension guidelines (2020). He is current Secretary of the International Society of Hypertension and has been a member of Council of the European Society of hypertension (2018-2022). He is also Fellow of the American Heart Association, European Society of Cardiology and Royal College of Physicians London.

He has published over 500 research papers, many in leading journals. He has a H-index of 98 and his work has been cited over 85,000 times. He has been the Director, Principal, or co-Principal investigator for over £300m research funding during his career.

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/WHO International Clinical Research award, recognising his Clinical Research contribution globally.
Dr Sally Brett, King's College London, UK
Sally Brett studied Nursing at the University of Glasgow before completing a PhD on the influence of cardiovascular risk factors on exercise blood pressure at King’s College London in 2001. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Cardiovascular Medicine and Sciences, King’s College London with an interest in the performance of novel imaging biomarkers in predicting progression of heart failure and clinical outcomes in patients with hypertension and heart failure.
Coming SoonDr David Collier, Queen Mary University of London, UK
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Professor Philip Eaton, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Philip Eaton studied Biochemistry at Queen Mary College, University of London before completing PhD studies at the University of Sussex. He is a Professor of Cardiovascular Biochemistry at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. His group studies redox sensing and signalling and the implications for cardiovascular health and disease.
Dr Pankaj Gupta, University Hospitals of Leicester, UK
Coming Soon
Dr Vikas Kapil, Barts Health NHS Trust, UK
Vikas Kapil read Medicine and Anatomy at Queen’s College Cambridge, achieving first class undergraduate honours and then transferred for his undergraduate clinical training to University College London Medical School.
He completed postgraduate training at St Thomas’ and St Bartholomew’s hospitals and was awarded his PhD under the supervision of Professor Amrita Ahluwalia at the William Harvey Research Institute, investigating the effects of inorganic nitrate on the human cardiovascular system.
Since 2015, he has been a senior lecturer at WHRI and consultant in the Barts BP Centre of Excellence at Barts Heart Centre, with sub-speciality interests in blood pressure disorders (including circulatory dysautonomia) and aortopathy. His research encompasses nitric oxide signalling, autonomic dysfunction, and of course, COVID-19.
Dr Philip Lewis, Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, UK
Philip Eaton studied Biochemistry at Queen Mary College, University of London before completing PhD studies at the University of Sussex. He is a Professor of Cardiovascular Biochemistry at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. His group studies redox sensing and signalling and the implications for cardiovascular health and disease.
Coming SoonDr Carmen Maniero, Barts NHS Trust, UK
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Coming SoonDr Mary MacLeod, University of Aberdeen, UK
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Dr Carmel McEniery, University of Cambridge, UK
Dr Carmel McEniery is a Principal Research Associate in the Division of Experimental Medicine and Immunotherapeutics, University of Cambridge, and a College Lecturer in Physiology at Churchill College, Cambridge. Her key research interests are the mechanisms driving the development of hypertension in young adults, and how blood pressure and its underlying haemodynamic mechanisms change across the adult age-span. Dr McEniery is the current Vice-President of the ARTERY Society and a long-term supporter of the BIHS.
Dr Hafiz Naderi, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Hafiz is currently undertaking a PhD at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, supported by the British Heart Foundation. He is also an Honorary Cardiology Registrar in Imaging at Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Before beginning this Clinical Research Training Fellowship he was a Cardiac Imaging Fellow at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust focussing on echocardiography. He has also completed a Cardiac CT Fellowship at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Currently he is gaining experience in Cardiac MRI at Barts Heart Centre. Through these roles, Hafiz has gained experience and knowledge of the various cardiovascular imaging modalities.

Hafiz is also passionate about medical education and has started a YouTube channel called “The Heart Doctor” to raise public awareness on heart disease.

Twitter: @hafiz_naderi
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHeartDoctor
Mr Sam Olden, BIHS, UK
Sam Olden is a Specialist Physiotherapist with a background in exercise rehabilitation and a particular interest in cardiovascular conditions. Sam has led a private rehabilitation clinic for the past 6 years overseeing Cardiac, Oncology and Long COVID programmes.
Dr Eduard Shantsila, University of Liverpool, UK
Dr Shantsila is a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care at the University of Liverpool and a GP. He uses different approaches to assess the interaction of hypertension, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and ageing, such as IMPRESS-AF RCT, Cochrane reviews for data synthesis; observational studies (E-ECHOES study) for population-level research.
Dr James Sheppard, University of Oxford, UK
Coming Soon
Dr Oliver Todd, University of Leeds, UK, UK
Oly Todd is an NiHR academic clinical lecturer in geriatric medicine at University of Leeds and specialty registrar in geriatric and internal medicine. Oly undertook a PhD in stratifying hypertension management in older people according to frailty status. Oly leads @geridata, a UK collaborative of clinicians and data custodians who share an interest using data and artificial intelligence to improve the care of older people.
Professor Joanna Wardlaw, University of Edinburgh, UK
Professor Joanna Wardlaw is an expert on the brain and its blood supply, and on treatments to improve blood flow to the brain, including clot-busting drugs that are now in routine use to treat stroke, and more recently on diseases of the small deep brain blood vessels and dementia.
Dr Helen Warren, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Dr Helen Warren is a Senior Lecturer in Statistical Genetics at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on cardiovascular genetics and pharmacogenetics, especially relating to hypertension, statin therapy and cardiovascular risk prediction. She is an analyst for the ASCOT and BRIGHT studies, a steering committee member for the International Consortium for Blood Pressure, and a member of the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) research steering committee. She has been a BIHS member since 2014, currently a member of the BIHS Research Working Party, and was one of the three volunteer Young Investigator (YI) representatives who launched the YI Network in 2016.
Dr Stephen Walsh, NCL, UK
Coming Soon
Professor Alastair Webb, University of Oxford, UK
Prof Alastair Webb is an associate professor and Wellcome Trust CRCD Fellow at the Wolfson Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, University of Oxford and a consultant neurologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. His research group is focussed on the physiological relationship between blood pressure, cerebrovascular physiology and stroke risk.
Professor David Wheeler, King's College London, UK
David is Professor of Kidney Medicine at University College London, UK and Honorary Consultant Nephrologist at the Royal Free London NHS Trust. He is a clinical scientist interested in chronic kidney disease. He has participated in the development and delivery of several large-scale clinical trials testing lipid lowering regimens, calcimimetics, intravenous iron, SGLT2 inhibitors and HIF stabilisers in CKD patients. David has been involved in the development of Clinical Practice Guidelines for several organisations, most recently for Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO). He was KDIGO co-chair between 2012 and 2019. He is currently National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Specialty Lead for Renal Disorders and Co-Medical Director of the North Thames Clinical Research Network.
Helen Williams, NHS England, UK
Helen is the National Speciality Adviser for CVD Prevention at NHS England and is working on delivery of the national CVD ambitions for AF, Blood Pressure and Cholesterol in the NHS Long Term Plan. Helen has worked as a CVD specialist for more than 25 years across all care settings. She was clinical adviser to the national AF programme and developed the pharmacist-led virtual clinic model to optimise uptake of anticoagulation in AF, which has now been spread nationally. Helen has recently been appointed as one of the long term conditions lead for South East London Integrated Care System and is also working at UCLPartners on the implementation of proactive care frameworks for long-term conditions to support primary care in the post COVID-19 environment.