Mr Rob Biggar

Rob Biggar is the Consultant Clinical Scientist and Operational Lead for Radiotherapy Physics at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in Exeter. He is a registered Higher Specialist Scientist and an assessor for the AHCS HSSE programme.

Professor Colin Gibson

Colin Gibson is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Rehabilitation Engineering at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. He also holds an honorary position in Cardiff University School of Engineering and is an AHCS Assessor for HSSE in Clinical Biomedical Engineering (having been the External Examiner for the DClinSci Clinical Biomedical Engineering at the University of Manchester from 2017 to 2022).

Professor Chris Hopkins

FLSW, FAHCS, FIPEM, CSci, CEng

Head of TriTech & Innovation, Hywel Dda University Health Board & President of the UK Academy for Healthcare Science

 Professor Hopkins is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and an Honorary Professor in both the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science at Swansea University and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He is currently President of the Academy for Healthcare Science and Chair of the AHCS Professional Bodies Council, Head of TriTech & Innovation at Hywel Dda University Health Board and Clinical Director at the Assistive Technologies and Innovation Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

He holds fellowships from the Learned Society of Wales, the Academy for Healthcare Science (AHCS) and the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM). He is a Chartered Scientist and Chartered Engineer and plays key advisory roles as a member of the MHRA expert advisory committee and the Health Technology Wales appraisal panel. Additionally, he is Deputy Director of the Science, Technology, Engineering, Research and Innovation Council at IPEM.

Dr Gemma Greenfinch

Principal Nuclear Medicine Physicist at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS FT

Gemma Greenfinch qualified as a Clinical Scientist in Nuclear Medicine in 2012 in Leeds, then worked in Edinburgh and Durham.  Between 2016 and 2019 she worked on a PhD fellowship on dementia imaging at Newcastle University, funded by the Alzheimer's Society.  She then worked as a Band 8a in Newcastle, then Band 8b team lead at UCLH from 2024, and very recently as a Band 8b joint Lead for Nuclear Medicine Physics at Exeter.  It wasn't practical to combine a fellowship and postdoctoral research with HSST, so Gemma worked towards Equivalence as an alternative route and was successful at Stage 1 in 2022.  Gemma is keen on encouraging others to work towards Equivalence if HSST is inaccessible. She does this by providing guidance and mentorship - both locally and via national events like this one - and by working with AHCS to improve the process and make it clearer.

Lynne Smith

Academy for Healthcare Science (AHCS) Interim Head of Standards and Equivalence; Honorary Fellow of AHCS & Non-Executive Director of AHCS

Lynne is a Clinical Scientist and worked as Clinical Manager in GI Physiology at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for over 40 yrs.

Lynne was involved in the curriculum development of both GI Physiology and Urodynamics at STP and HSS level and was GI Module Lead at Newcastle University at the start of the MSc Clinical Sciences. Prior to this Lynne was a lecturer in GI Physiology at De Montfort University, Coventry University and Sheffield College.  Lynne was awarded an MBE for services to Healthcare Sciences in 2014.