External members

Current members

Dr Nicholas J Lawrance

I graduated from the University of Sheffield in medicine and trained in general medicine in Sheffield and Manchester before specialising in Dermatology. I have presented nationally and internationally and have written multiple publications including a book chapter on vulvar pruritus. I was awarded the 2019 North of England Dermatology Society Annual Prize - The Roy Summerly Prize. I am currently a NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Dermatology in Sheffield.

My research interests include the role of atopic dermatitis on psychiatric disorders and novel pharmacological agents for atopic dermatitis.

Dr Sura M Sahib

I graduated from the University of Babylon-Iraq with a first-class Honours degree. After my foundation training, I completed an MSc degree with a Distinction in Dermatology skills and treatment from the University of Hertfordshire. I trained at Royal Papworth Hospital in 2016 and completed my core medical training at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

I am currently working as a Specialty Registrar at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and will be joining the Dermatology team at Sheffield Children’s Hospital as a Specialty doctor in April 2021.

Dr Shatha Shibib

Dr Shibib is a Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist and Clinical Director of the Community Wellbeing and Mental Health Division at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Her clinical and research interests include developmental disorders and physical and mental health interaction. She is particularly interested in paediatric psychodermatology and has developed a paediatric psychodermatology service in collaboration with Professor Michael Cork at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

Research interests include the psychological and psychiatric effects of Atopic dermatitis and the effects of inflammation on the skin and brain. She is currently co-leading research trials, looking at early intervention in Atopic Dermatitis and the impact on maternal attachment and infant development.

Shatha is also the Training Programme Director for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Specialist Higher Training in South Yorkshire and an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield.

Tayclyn Duan

I completed my BEng in Biomedical Engineering, specializing in medical device design, at the University of Sheffield in 2016. I undertook my final year project, on quantifying mechanical parameters of skin using OCT, under the supervision of Prof. Stephen Matcher. Afterwards, I completed my MEng in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 2020, again specializing in medical device design. Subsequently, I have undertaken multiple R&D projects at Philips BV, Drachten, Netherlands, on establishing skin biomarkers for their shaving developments, mainly investigating how various skin parameters interact with Philips’s shaving system. I also helped to develop a robotic system for object tracking on artificial skin models, to explore potential design aspects of their shaving system.

Currently, I am doing my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Stephen Matcher at the University of Sheffield on skin biomarker research. This PhD project largely involves the development & clinical application of novel skin imaging devices, to establish and validate biomarkers of inflammatory skin disease such as AD, Psoriasis, systemic and localized Scleroderma, and graft-versus-host-disease. Equipment being applied in this project includes commercial and lab-built OCT systems, PS-OCT and OCT angiography. My research interest spans OCT technical development and clinical research in dermatology, via the use of novel OCT and other photonic imaging equipment.

Ri Yuan

I received my MEng degree in Optical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, in 2019. During my postgraduate studies, I focused on quantitative research using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and developed a single-sample calibration method to improve the detection accuracy for major elements in samples such as steel.

I was awarded a University of Sheffield faculty scholarship to undertake a PhD in Electronic & Electrical Engineering. In October 2020 I started my PhD programme, in the EEE Biophotonics group led by Professor Stephen Matcher. My current project aims to develop a high-speed near-IR OCT functional angiography system for quantifying blood flow velocity in blood vessels, and thus investigate the potential of spatially localized blood flow measurements to provide quantitative biomarkers of atopic dermatitis severity and treatment response.

Honorary members

David J. Gawkrodger

I qualified from the University of Birmingham in 1976 and, after my house physician and house surgeon posts at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, I was a senior house officer and registrar in general internal medicine, over four years, on the Stoke on Trent medical rotation. It was there that I became interested in skin disease. In 1981 I moved to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where I spent seven years training in dermatology as a registrar, senior registrar, and finally lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. During this time, I completed research for my MD degree into cutaneous nickel hypersensitivity.

In 1988 I moved to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield to a newly created post of consultant dermatologist with four days in Sheffield and one day at the Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital. I set up the contact dermatitis service and continued with research in this area, collaborating with Professor Sheila MacNeil in Bioengineering. Subsequently this research extended to melanocyte biology, and I developed a further link with Professor Tony Weetman and Dr Helen Kemp in the Department of Medicine, investigating autoimmunity in vitiligo. At the medical school, I was course director for human disease teaching to dental students, 2000-06. In the Dermatology Department, I was lead clinician for 11 years and, at various times, lead for biologics, governance, and audit, and, latterly, programme director for training.

Nationally I have undertaken a number of roles including as editor of the British Journal of Dermatology, chair of the Joint Specialty Committee at the Royal College of Physicians, treasurer to the British Association of Dermatologists, chair of Expert Advisory Groups at the Commission on Human Medicines, president of the Section of Dermatology at the Royal Society of Medicine, president of the British Society for Contact Allergy, and chair of the standard setting board for the Speciality Certificate Examination in Dermatology. Internationally, I have been a member of various committees at the European Society of Contact Dermatitis, and the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, and was on the European Vitiligo Panel.

After retiring from clinical work in 2012, I have continued as honorary treasurer and trustee of the British Skin Foundation. From 2013 to 2014, I served as the vice chair of the Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety at the European Commission. I remain active in research into contact dermatitis and vitiligo, combining this with some lecturing and teaching. Additionally, I have developed an interest in the history of medicine, and currently chair the Historical Collections Sub-committee at the British Association of Dermatologists. The 7th edition of my book Dermatology: an illustrated colour text (co-author M. Ardern-Jones), was published in November 2020.

Professor Ruth Murphy

Ruth Murphy has been a consultant in adult and paediatric dermatology for 20 years. She is currently a Consultant Dermatologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospital and Sheffield Children’s Hospital. She has been involved in research since 1994 when she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellowship to study IL-4 polymorphisms in Atopic Dermatitis. This sparked an interest in inflammatory skin diseases in adults and children.

Before returning to Sheffield she was a consultant dermatologist and Honorary Associate Professor at Nottingham University Teaching Hospitals where she was a co-applicant on two NHIR grants and supervised the associated PhDs in paediatric psoriasis and vulval disease. She has experience as a principal investigator in both industry-sponsored and NIHR-supported registry trials predominantly in psoriasis (BADBIR) and atopic dermatitis (A*STAR). She was elected as a fellow of the International Psoriasis Council in 2009 and was section Editor for the British Journal of Dermatology for 4 years.

She has chaired sessions at the World Congress of Dermatology, the British Society of Dermatology, the European Academy of Dermatology and Venerology and the European Society of Paediatric Dermatology and the British Association of Dermatology. She lectures widely on inflammatory skin disease and has published accordingly. She is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Paediatric Dermatology. She is the Immediate Past President of the British Association of Dermatologists and before this was the Academic Vice President of the British Association of Dermatologists where she established the Education Unit.

She is also a past President of the British Society of Paediatric Dermatologists. She has an international standing in medical education and was Chair of the Specialty Advisory Committee in Dermatology to the Royal College of Physicians from 2011-2015 which nationally advises the training for dermatology at the speciality level and was appointed by the Australian Medical Council to be part of a team review Dermatology training nationally. She continues to supervise research into medical education both in the UK and overseas and currently supervises a PhD in undergraduate dermatology. She currently works with Health Education England as part of the Topol Steering group and Digital Health Steering group and continues as lead for Digital Transformation at the British Association of Dermatologists.