Professor Calum Semple OBE
BM BCh, PhD
Advisory Board (Chair)
Outbreak Research Clinical Scientist
Professor Calum Semple OBE has studied severe virus disease outbreaks since 1989 in the fields of diagnostics, clinical characterization and clinical trials, at times field-deployed in austere circumstances. He maintains a clinical practice in pediatric respiratory medicine.
Prof. Semple was appointed to a tenured chair in Outbreak Medicine and Child Health in 2017. He leads a portfolio of research including Urgent Public Health Research studies activated in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterization Protocol UK is the largest prospective study of emerging infectious disease of public health interest in the world. Designed in preparedness for Disease X the protocol has been used to recruit sporadic cases of MERS, Monkeypox and over 90,000 cases of COVID-19 in the UK.
His other NIHR funded studies are The Pandemic Influenza Community Assessment Tools study “FLU-CATs” and the Bronchiolitis Endotracheal Surfactant Study “BESS”. BESS is an ambitious multinational randomized controlled trial of Endotracheal Surfactant administered to infants with life-threatening Bronchiolitis. Bronchiolitis has now surpassed malaria as the worst global killer of children under one year old.
Prof. Semple deployed to Sierra Leone in 2014 to lead a consortium of investigators from University of Sierra Leone, the Connaught Hospital and Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces Joint Medical Unit along with international partners to run a trial of Convalescent Plasma for Early Ebola Virus Disease and was Co-Investigator for the sister study in Guinea. This was the first clinical trial in Sierra Leone since the civil war ended in 2002.
He is a Government Senior Clinical Advisor for clinical countermeasures and currently sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the New Emerging Respiratory Viral Treats Advisory Group (NERVTAG). He is a former member of the 2014-16 WHO Scientific Technical Advisory Committee for Ebola Emergencies (STAC-EE).
For his leadership of medical research in Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016 Prof Semple and his team were awarded the Queen’s Ebola Medal for Service in West Africa. In 2019 he received a Commonwealth Award for continuing work with Ebola Survivors. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2020 he was appointed Officer of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contribution to the COVID-19 response.
Sage Expertise
In October 2020, Queen Elizabeth appointed Calum Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his service on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), which provides scientific and technical advice to support government decision makers during emergencies.
FUN FACT:
Calum plays the Great Highland Bagpipes of his native Scotland and has even serenaded his fellow researchers with them on his trips in Sierra Leone.