Honorary Professorship for NHS England Deputy Chief Scientific Officer
6 January 2026
An influential figure in public health and microbiology has been awarded an Honorary Professorship by Cardiff University.
Professor Victoria Chalker, Deputy Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England is an internationally recognised expert in medical microbiology, infectious diseases and clinical diagnostics.
Her career has spanned more than two decades in public health and academic science, with her work playing a central role in guiding national and international responses to infectious disease threats across a wide portfolio of respiratory and emerging infections, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collaborations with Cardiff University’s Medical Microbiology group stretch back some 15 years, with Professor Chalker co-authoring 22 significant peer-reviewed papers with the Cardiff team, ranging from diagnostics, genomics and antimicrobial resistance across multiple pathogens.
Successes as part of this collaboration include work describing novel antimicrobial resistance islands and genomic reorganisation in invasive Group B Streptococcus from UK sepsis patients which has directly informed clinical care and guidelines; and leading international efforts to standardise testing for Legionella pneumophila antimicrobial susceptibility, and to validate markers of antimicrobial resistance.
Professor Brad Spiller of the University’s School of Medicine said: “Professor Vicki Chalker is one of the UK’s pre-eminent healthcare science leaders. As Deputy Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England, she provides professional leadership to tens of thousands of healthcare scientists, while still maintaining a formidable research and innovation portfolio.”
This honorary professorship recognises not only her international standing in medical microbiology, but also the deep and productive partnership she has built with Cardiff over many years.
As Deputy Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Chalker champions healthcare scientists, driving initiatives that provide them with meaningful opportunities in research and innovation. She has worked with partners to champion and deliver Fellowship programmes for healthcare scientists, with the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre (HRC) in Long Term Conditions, Devices for Dignity (D4D), the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, the Healthcare Scientist (HCS) Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Programme National Measurement Laboratory, the MHRA, UKAS, UKNEQAS and works closely with the Academy for Healthcare Science , supporting healthcare scientists to develop as clinical entrepreneurs and to deliver innovations that benefit patients across the NHS. With a keen interest in innovation Professor Chalker has several patents that have arisen directly from clinical research, including with Cardiff University. Working with the team at Cardiff University Professor Chalker has contributed significant strains of pathogens to the National Collection of Type Cultures to foster high quality research and provide future generations access to key bacterial strains of importance.
Globally recognised for her expertise in respiratory pathogens, Dr Chalker has been central to national and international work in this area, including Streptococcus pyogenes and Mycoplasma pneumoniae and has contributed tonational response for pathogens
With colleagues in Cardiff University Professor Chalker has supported a number of developing researchers and colleagues, including international scientists from low income countries, championing international quality improvement in clinical practice and research.
Having worked with excellent colleagues in infection science at Cardiff University for more than a decade I am honoured to receive this accolade and look forward to working with Cardiff University going forward.