About
Professor Tom Solomon has been tackling emerging infections, especially those that affect the brain, for 30 years in the UK and globally. He is currently Director of The Pandemic Institute, Liverpool; Academic Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians; Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections; Chair of Neurological Science at the University of Liverpool and the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust; and Vice President (International) of The Academy of Medical Sciences. After qualifying in Medicine at Oxford, his research training included 3 years at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, and 2 at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA. He heads the multi-disciplinary Liverpool Brain Infections Group, which works to reduce the UK and global burden of emerging neurological infections in adults and children. With colleagues he established the Liverpool Neurological Infectious Diseases Clinical Service since in 2005. In 2021 he became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has had a number of roles on UK Government advisory committees, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in The Queen’s birthday honours List 2021.
Tom is a keen teacher, leading the annual Neurological Infectious Diseases course in Liverpool, and an enthusiastic science communicator. He wrote the popular science book Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine (2016), and a linked sell-out family show at Edinburgh Fringe 2017. His 2022 show Ker-Pow! How Science Superheroes Crushed Covid received 5* reviews. He hosted the Scouse Science Podcast, 2020-22. He won a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon dressed as a doctor (2010), and another for his Sci-Art project The World’s Biggest Brain (2014). He tweets @RunningMadProf.
Prizes or Honours
- Royal College of Physicians of London, Linacre Lectureship 2006 (Royal College of Physicians of London, 2006)
- Neurology Specialist Registrar Training Weekend ¿ Travel Bursary Competition (Neurology Specialist Registrar Training Weekend , 2004)
- Birmingham Movement Disorder Course April 2004, Video Competition, 1st Prize (Birmingham Movement Disorder Course, 2004)
- Invited Review Article (New England Journal of Medicine, Editorial Board, 2004)
- Charles Symonds Prize (Association of British Neurologists , 2003)
Funded Fellowships
- Medical Research Council Senior Clinical Fellow (Medical Research Council (MRC), 2005)
- Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship (Wellcome Trust, 2000)