During the Covid pandemic his name and face were known to millions across the UK.
What wasn’t well known was Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, former deputy chief medical officer for England, has been studying at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).
Now pro-vice chancellor at the University of Nottingham, Prof Van-Tam began a distance learning post graduate course in leadership and management in 2016.
A possible graduation in Inverness?
His studies were interrupted by the pandemic when he was thrown into the limelight, appearing regularly on TV during lockdown.
He returned to the course just after Christmas and said he hopes to come to Inverness to graduate.
Pro Van-Tam was in the city as one of the guests at the opening of the £9.5 million life sciences innovation centre on Inverness Campus.
He said: “In 2016 I decided one of the things that was missing was a qualification in leadership and management. I looked around and enrolled here.
“But then came the secondment and I became deputy chief medical offer and had to suspend my studies.
“If I had done it at normal speed, the route to a Masters is three years, but it’s taken me the best part of six.
“But I was kind of busy.”
He said “something clicked” in terms of using online learning. He logs on from his home in Lincolnshire to study at nights and weekends.
“You can always learn something, no matter how old you are or how senior you are. If you study, you learn and I’m learning.”
During his visit, he praised the work being done at the innovation centre. The centre is encouraging partnerships between academic researchers, industry and the NHS.
He cited the example of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine as an example of medical advances made at universities.
“The use of technology in healthcare has, in my view, been accelerated greatly by the pandemic.
“There are now even stronger reasons for the collaboration between academic research, business and the healthcare sector.”
Could UHI make the next big medical breakthrough?
Prof Van-Tam said vaccines to treat cancers could be 5-10 years away, but advances cannot be sustained unless there is a thriving life sciences sector working in partnership with academics, industry and the health sector.
And he said there is no rule to say the next big medical breakthrough could not come from a smaller university like UHI with strong local and regional partnerships.
“UHI has every opportunity to be part of whatever comes next in life science and health research.
“I look forward to seeing the positive impact this centre will have in the months and years to come in making discoveries and in training scientists who may go elsewhere to continue their journeys for the benefit of mankind.”
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