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Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English, University of Bristol

Gareth Williams has extensively researched the ramifications of fear following epidemics, including polio and smallpox. His books include Angel of Death: the story of smallpox (shortlisted for the Wellcome Medical Book Prize 2010), Paralysed with Fear: the story of polio (2013)).

He has written 200 scientific articles and edited over 20 medical textbooks, including the prize-winning Textbook of Diabetes

Professor Williams grew up in Belfast, won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge to study medicine and qualified as a doctor with Honours in 1977. He built up an internationally renowned research group in diabetes and obesity in Liverpool and was Dean of Medicine at the University of Bristol, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English.

Gareth is a former President of the Anglo-French Medical Society, has served as Chair of the Trustees of the Edward Jenner Museum and is proud to be an Ambassador of the British Polio Fellowship. He is often to be found playing the flute or saxophone in the vicinity of Bristol.

Experience

  • –present
    Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Bristol

Honours

Honorary doctorate, University of Angers