As Deputy Vice-Chancellor since October 2022, Brian Walker has a broad remit to support the implementation of the University’s Vision & Strategy and to ensure that our ambitions are met and our core values are evidenced in all that we do. He is responsible for academic leadership of strategy, planning, budgeting and resources across all of our core missions in education and research, and leads on strategic projects that span the portfolios of other members of Executive Board.
Brian joined Newcastle University in 2017 as Pro Vice Chancellor for Research Strategy & Resources. He led the design and implementation of the University’s Research Strategy, including the re-alignment of multi-disciplinary research into a portfolio of NUCoREs, the recruitment of additional academics through the NUAcT and NUFutures schemes, the expansion of the University’s innovation centres, and the development of our research culture roadmap and PGR delivery plan.
He was previously at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Head of the BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Dean of Research for the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine, and an architect of the sector-leading Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track scheme. A clinical Endocrinologist, his research on steroid hormones in cardiovascular disease, supported principally by BHF and Wellcome Trust has led to >250 original research papers (h-index >70) and a new drug which has reached clinical trials in patients with dementia. He has also edited three editions of the iconic textbook Davidson’s Principles & Practice of Medicine and supervised >40 PhD students.
Brian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a former Chair of the Wellcome Trust Clinical Interview Committee and BHF Project Grants Committee, was a member of the Clinical Medicine sub-panel for REF2021, and is currently a Trustee of the BHF, Chair of the MRC Population & Systems Medicine Board and member of MRC Strategy and Major Investments Boards..
