Intensive care medicine professor appointed to lead Surrey’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Joining from Queen Mary University of London, where he was Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, and from Barts Health NHS Trust, where he serves as Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, Professor Pearse will take up his new role in the summer.  

His appointment comes as the University advances its Vision 2041 strategy, alongside targets to substantially increase research output, grant income and REF performance across the university – and a commitment to building a sustained research and innovation partnership with the NHS, from the Surrey Clinical Research Facility through to major trusts across the region. Professor Pearse brings experience in large-scale clinical trial leadership, commercial research partnerships and the translation of evidence into improved patient care. 

Professor Pearse’s research focuses on improving outcomes for critically ill and older, high-risk patients undergoing major surgery. He has led numerous large multi-centre randomised trials, epidemiological studies and mixed-methods research projects, with a growing body of work extending to patients in the global south. 

Until recently, he served as Director of Clinical Research for Barts Health and Queen Mary. During that period, research publications by authors affiliated to Barts Health grew from just over 500 in 2012 to more than 2,500 in 2021. By 2023/24, the trust was opening 255 new studies a year – the highest research-active NHS organisation in the UK – with the shortest average study set-up time in the NHS at 59 days. Over a quarter of almost £40m in annual research income came from commercial activity, and the trust recruited a record 23,000 patients to research projects in a single year, ranking first in the UK for commercial drug trials. 

The research infrastructure developed during his tenure includes a new clinical research facility at The Royal London Hospital, the Academic Centre for Healthy Ageing at Whipps Cross and a specialist research MRI scanner at Newham Hospital.