About Us

Dr Ron Zimmern - Chairman

Ron Zimmern established the Public Health Genetics Unit in 1997 and its successor, PHG Foundation in 2007. He stood down as CEO in September 2009 and has taken on the role of Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Ron maintains his special interests in the strategic development of the Foundation, on international leadership in public health genomics, and in the Foundation’s work on the evaluation and regulation of genetic tests and molecular biomarkers.

Ron has enjoyed a distinguished career in medicine and public health and he is the pioneer of public health genomics in the UK. Ron heads a team whose expertise spans genetics, epidemiology, public health, law, social science, ethics and knowledge management; with whom he has led the Foundation into the international arena, working closely with colleagues and institutions in the USA, Canada, Europe and Hong Kong.

After medical training in Cambridge and London, Ron specialised in neurology then entered public health medicine in 1983. During the 1980s he also did a law degree and developed an enduring interest in the law and ethics of medicine. He was Director of Public Health for Cambridge and Huntingdon Health Authority from 1991 to 1998, and he continues to maintain interests in strategic planning of health care, the relationship between clinical services and teaching and research, and priority setting in the NHS. He is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at Addenbrooke's Hospital and a Fellow of Hughes Hall.

His work in the last ten years has concentrated on public health genomics and policy, and he has played a key role at a national and international level. He has previously served on the Department of Health’s Genetics Commissioning Advisory Group; the Steering Group for the National Genetic Testing Network, the Joint Committee of Medical Genetics of the Royal Colleges; the Council for the British Society of Human Genetics; and as Chairman of the Diagnostic and Screening Panel of the UK’s Health Technology Assessment programme. Ron holds an honorary Professorship at Hong Kong University and was the Founding Chairman of GRAPH-Int, the public health genomics international network until May 2010.

Selected recent publications:

• Zimmern RL. Testing challenges: evaluation of novel diagnostics and molecular biomarkers Clin Med (2009) Feb;9(1):68-73
• Melzer D, Hogarth S, Liddell K, Ling T, Sanderson S, Zimmern RL. Genetic tests for common diseases: new insights, old concerns BMJ (2008) Mar 15;336(7644):590-3
• Burke W, Zimmern RL, Kroese M. Defining purpose: a key step in genetic test evaluation Genet Med (2007) Oct;9(10):675-81
• Kroese M, Zimmern RL, Farndon P, Stewart F, Whittaker J. How can genetic tests be evaluated for clinical use? Experience of the UK Genetic Testing Network Eur J Hum Genet.(2007) Sep;15(9):917-21
• Burke W, Khoury MJ, Stewart A, Zimmern RL, Bellagio Group The path from genome-based research to population health: development of an international public health genomics network Genet Med (2006) Jul;8(7):451-8
• Brand A, Schroder P, Brand H, Zimmern R. Getting ready for the future: integration of genomics into public health research, policy and practice in Europe and globally Community Genet (2006);9(1):67-71
• Ioannidid JP, Gwinn M, Little J et al. A road map for efficient and reliable human genome epidemiology Nat Genet (2006) Jan;38(1):3-5

Please visit PHG Foundation’s resources page for a list of our publications and other work by members of our staff.