Red Alert: Developing a Human-centred National Heat Resilience Strategy

Professor Mike Tipton (Project Chair)

Policy Committee Chair, The Physiological Society and Professor of Human & Applied Physiology at the Extreme Environments Laboratory, University of Portsmouth

Mike is Professor of Human & Applied Physiology at the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth and Chair of The Physiological Society’s Policy Committee as well as one of The Society’s Trustees. 

Mike’s research focuses on the physiological and psychological responses to adverse environments and the selection, preparation and protection of those who enter such environments and his research underpins the RNLI "Fight your Instincts" and Float First" campaign. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2018 for "services to physiological research in extreme environments”. 

Dr Ana-Catarina Pinho-Gomes (Project Chair)

Faculty of Public Health

Cat Pinho-Gomes is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Public Health Medicine at UCL and Public Health specialty registrar in London. She has been co-leading the climate & health work with the Climate & Health Committee and the Sustainable Development Special Interest Group of the Faculty of Public Health. 

Cat is also chair of the Specialty Registrars’ Committee of the Faculty of Public Health, which represents registrars across the four nations. She is interested in research investigating how the environment impacts on our health and how we use this understanding to improve population and planetary health. 

Rob Walton

Founder & Principal, Covostra Ltd

Rob Walton is the Founder and Principal of Covostra Ltd, a person-centred healthcare communications consultancy. He specialises in public policy, strategy & advocacy and is an expert in effective external engagement. Rob has supported many innovative organisations to establish leadership in their communities and facilitated impactful policy development in a wide range of public health areas at home and abroad.  

Rob is Deputy Chair of the British Society of Gerontology Special Interest Group on Ageing, Business and Society, and was awarded a Master of Public Administration from The School of International Public Affairs (SIPA) at The University of Columbia in New York. 

Professor Damien Bailey

Professor of Physiology & Biochemistry and Director of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of South Wales

Damien Bailey is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Fellow. He is also a Professor of Physiology and Biochemistry and the Director of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of South Wales. His research focuses on how free radicals (for good or bad) impact upon the cerebral circulation across the spectrum of health and (mostly atherosclerotic) disease.

Amelia Dearman

Senior Advisor Government Relations, Wellcome

Amelia Dearman is a Senior Government Relations adviser at Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that aims to improve human health. She works climate and health advocacy, including at events like the COP conference.  

Amelia is also a Churchill Fellow and her research focuses on extreme heat and exploring the tangible steps the UK can take to tackle this critical aspect of climate change. 

Dr Marina Romanello

Executive Director, Lancet Countdown and Researcher Climate Change & Health at UCL

Marina is the Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change, and climate change and health researcher at UCL. She trained as a clinical biochemist in the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, and holds a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK. 

Marina’s research background spans from toxicology through to environmental health and climate change, and she has previously carried out her research in the Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires, the University of Cambridge, and the Francis Crick Institute. 

Dr Victoria Bills

Vice-Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Victoria is a Consultant Obstetrician and Subspecialist in Fetal/Maternal Medicine in University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. She obtained her PhD at the University of Bristol, studying the microvascular processes of pre-eclampsia.  

She is honorary senior lecturer at the University of Bristol, supervising clinical PhD researchers investigating the role of the glycocalyx and vascular growth molecules in pregnancy related diseases.  She is co-vice chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the RCOG..."

Dr Candice Howarth

Head of Local Climate Action, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE

Candice is Head of Local Climate Action at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, part of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is also Co-Director of the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN) and oversees the Institute’s work on preparedness and resilience to extreme heat in the UK. 

Candice’s research interests focus on how the co-production of knowledge and science communication can be used to better inform decision-making in the context of climate resilience and sustainability challenges. 

Professor Hugh Montgomery

Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at UCL and the Director of the UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance

Hugh is a Professor of Intensive Care at UCL, where he directed the Institute for Human Health and Performance. Hugh's interest has been in the use of environmental stressors in the exploration of human (patho)physiology – often using a genetic approach. He was the first to discover a 'gene for human fitness'. He has published over 450 scientific articles. Hugh also has a strong interest in environmental impacts on health, and in climate change in particular. 

Dr Elaine Mulcahy

Director, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change

Elaine has a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Strathclyde and completed post-doctoral research in neurophysiology at the University of Sydney and Australian National University. She has extensive experience working in health and science communications and strategic leadership roles including editor of the nanotechnology magazine NANO and communications roles at University of Melbourne, University of Dundee and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Louise Wren

Director of External Affairs, Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC)

Louise joined AMRC in June 2023. She oversees external affairs at the AMRC and manages our relationship with key partners and supporters. Prior to joining the AMRC, Louise was Head of External Affairs at the Francis Crick Institute managing its policy, government affairs and external communications activities. She has also worked in policy and public affairs roles at Wellcome, the Medical Research Council and the BioIndustry Association. Outside of work, Louise is a patient adviser to UCLH and a member of its Person-Centred Care Committee. 

Professor George Havenith

Professor of Environmental Physiology and Ergonomics at Loughborough University

George is presently working at Loughborough University in the UK, where he has a Chair in Environmental Physiology and Ergonomics and is director of the Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre. His research covers three main topic areas, one being Human Thermal Physiology/Environmental Ergonomics, the other being heat and mass (vapour) transfer through clothing and finally athlete exercise performance in relation to clothing. 

George’s main research areas include human response to climate change, clothing heat exchange, impact of heat and cold on vulnerable groups. 

Dr Josh Foster

Assistant Professor/Lecturer in Heat and Health, King’s College London

Josh is a Assistant Professor/Lecturer in Heat and Health at the Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences at King’s College London. 

Josh completed his PhD at the University of Bedfordshire investigating the impact of cyclooxygenase inhibitors on human thermoregulation. He subsequently completed a 4-year postdoctoral Fellowship at Loughborough University with Prof George Havenith, and a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, with Prof Craig Crandall.   

Josh’s research assesses the impacts of extreme heat on human health and performance. Heat is the most lethal environmental hazard worldwide, and the severity, duration, and frequency of heatwaves are increasing with climate change. 

Dr Zoe Louise Saynor

Associate Professor in Clinical Exercise, University of Portsmouth

Zoe is an Associate Professor in Clinical Exercise Physiology and lead for both the Physical Activity, Health and Rehabilitation Thematic Research Group and Clinical, Health and Rehabilitation research Team (CHaRT) within the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth. She is an honorary researcher at several NHS Trusts  and an Accredited Clinical Exercise Physiologist.