Robert Hewitt

Robert trained in medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, obtained an intercalated BSc with first-class honours in immunology and microbiology, then went on to do a PhD in virology at the University of Glasgow. He was a clinical lecturer in Histopathology at the University of Nottingham, then a post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Pathology at NIH in Bethesda, MD, USA. He was introduced to biobanking as a clinical fellow at Hammersmith Hospital working in a team run by Professors Gordon Stamp and El-Nasir Lalani. Since then and for the past 20 years he has been active in establishing biobanks and developing the discipline of biobanking through his work in two biobanking associations, first ISBER and then ESBB. Most recently he has worked for a CRO called Trans-Hit Biomarkers, which provided him with a valuable opportunity to see biobanking from the industry perspective.

Education

• MB BS University of London (1978 — 1983)
• BSc (Hons) University of London (1979 — 1980)
• PhD University of Glasgow (1984 — 1988)

Companies

• Founder Biosample Hub (2020)
• Director Biosample Management Ltd (2018)
• Biobanking Specialist Trans-Hit Biomarkers, Inc. (2017 — 2018)
• Co-Founder & Manager ESBB Biobanking Society (2010 — 2017)
• European Editor of Biopreservation & Biobanking Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (2009 — 2016)
• President (and other appointments), ISBER Biobanking Society International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) (2005 — 2013)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology National University of Singapore (2002 — 2009)
• Senior Scientist King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (Gen. Org.) (2000 — 2001)
• Clinical Research Fellow, Department of Pathology, Hammersmith Hospital, ICSM Imperial College London (1998 — 2000)