Director of Public Health, Genomics England
Dr Tom Fowler is Genomic England’s Director of Public Health, working to support the science stream around rare diseases, infectious diseases and cancer. In particular, he has led the rare disease pilot phase of the 100,000 Genomes Project. He also coordinates the Project’s infectious disease strand, which is led primarily by Public Health England.
Following a PhD in Behavioural Genetics in 2003, his career began as a Specialist Registrar in Public Health, working in the NHS. He has worked in both commissioning and specialised commissioning as well as roles such as regional epidemiologist and health protection consultant.
As a locum Public Health consultant at the Chief Medical Officer’s Private Office in 2011-2013, Tom was editor-in-chief of the ‘Annual State of the Public’s Health’ (Vol. I), a comprehensive review of health data for England. Tom continues to work with the Chief Medical Officer of England on thought leadership around public health, including wellbeing and antimicrobial resistance. Tom is also active in the public health genomics community and was a member of the Public Health Genomics European Network (PHGEN) meeting that led to the Declaration of Rome 2012 summary of the European Best Practice Guidelines for Quality Assurance, Provision and Use of Genome-based Information and Technologies.
He is also an Honorary Research Fellow in Public Health at the University of Birmingham.