After serving as Chair of the Alopecia UK Research Committee since its creation in 2018, Professor Simon Milling will be stepping down from this role this month. While we would have liked to have kept Simon involved for longer, as we are a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities, we follow their guidelines on the rotation of grant review committees, which means after 6 years it is time for a change. 

Our Research Committee was established in 2018, at a time when our charity wished to become more involved in research, including the provision of research funding. For the last 6 years, Simon has been Chair of the committee which reviewed research funding applications and provided our charity with advice on research matters. During this period, Alopecia UK has invested more than £385,000 into 18 alopecia research projects with a range of aims including understanding causes, finding new paths to treatments, and helping people manage the psychological burden of hair loss.

As Chair of the committee, Simon always made sure that the priorities and views of people affected by alopecia were a key part of deciding which projects to award funding. 

On his time supporting Alopecia UK, Professor Milling said:

“It has been a genuine privilege to work with Alopecia UK over the last six years, and to help the charity fund truly excellent research. Alopecia UK has helped to accelerate the pace of research into alopecia, and I am very much looking forward to seeing this continue. 

With effective new treatments becoming available, the pace of research into alopecia will continue to accelerate. I am delighted that Alopecia UK is well-positioned to fund some of this work, and to provide superb patient-driven support for researchers. Importantly, Alopecia UK has championed the patient voice, ensuring that this is central to all our projects, both during their development, and when making funding decisions.”

We are very grateful to Simon for all his support over these years. As he continues to research the immunology of alopecia, we are sure to remain in close contact.

Following on from this, we are also pleased to announce that Simon’s shoes will be filled by an excellent successor. Professor Des Tobin, who has also been a member of the Research Committee since the start, will make the step up to Chair.

Professor Tobin is a Full Professor of Dermatological Science at UCD School of Medicine, and Director of the Charles Institute of Dermatology, University College Dublin. During his career, he has devoted much of his time into researching the inner workings of the hair follicle. 

We are delighted to have the continued support of one of the world’s leading alopecia researchers and are confident that as Chair of the Research Committee he will help us continue to fund excellent research in the coming years.