Professor Dame Sue Hill OBE DBE FMedSci FRSB FRCP (Hon) FRCPath (Hon) is the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for England and Head of Profession for Healthcare Science. She is a State Registered Clinical Scientist in respiratory medicine and holds an honorary academic chair at the University of Birmingham. She has an international academic and clinical research reputation with an extensive publication list and has presented nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics and has given several named lectures.

Dame Sue is responsible for providing expert clinical scientific, diagnostics and innovation advice across the health and care system and is head of profession for the healthcare science workforce in the NHS and associated bodies – embracing more than 50 separate scientific specialisms.

She has led major policy and strategy developments across all levels of the health and care system and across government working alongside ministers, specialist advisors and executive committees to deliver a range of high profile projects and initiatives which have had significant impact on patient and system outcomes. She has extensive experience at chairing or being a member of Boards and senior governance groups.

Dame Sue is the Senior Responsible Officer for Genomics in the NHS England, driving the world-leading programme to introduce a nationwide Genomic Medicine Service working in partnership to deliver cutting edge technologies such as whole genome sequencing into healthcare for patient benefit and in establishing new collaborations between the NHS and academia, industry and international governments/initiatives. This builds on her work in heading up the NHS contribution to the world leading 100,000 Genomes Project and leading the transformation for change.

Most recently, Dame Sue has played a major role in the national COVID-19 response programme (NHS Test and Trace and now UKHSA); leading the development and deployment of testing technologies into use for the UK population, introducing validation, quality assurance and regulatory compliance of new testing technologies, and co-directing a globally recognised programme for whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2.

Dame Sue was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours in recognition of the scale of her contribution to British genomics, having previously been awarded an OBE in 2005 in recognition of her services to healthcare science. Dame Sue is a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (2001) and Academy of Medical Sciences (2018) and holds honorary fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians (2010) and Royal College of Pathologists (2012).

Dame Sue holds honorary doctorates awarded from 12 English Universities in recognition of her contribution to science; Keele (2007); De Montfort (2008); Aston (2009); Wolverhampton, (2009); Birmingham, (2011); Plymouth (2011); Sunderland (2014) Stafford (2019); Surrey (2019); Manchester (2021); Exeter (2022); and Brunel (2022).

In 2020 and 2021 she was named one of The 80 Most Influential People in the English NHS and health policy.