Covering varied fields including nursing, child and maternal health, cancer, and exercise, the experienced practitioners will further enhance UEA’s internationally recognised research and teaching programme.

Prof Val Lattimer has been appointed as the new head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She joins UEA from Southampton University where her research focused on access to primary care. She takes up her new role next month.

Prof Jacqueline Collier will become the new head of the School of Allied Health Professions from April. She is a health psychologist and a registered nurse. Her current areas of research interest focus on child and maternal health. She joins UEA from Nottingham University.

Prof Alastair Watson will take up a new post of Chair in Translational Medicine from April. Translational medicine involves the transformation of laboratory findings into new ways of diagnosing and treating patients. His main research interests are gastroenterology, colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr John Saxton has been appointed Professor of Clinical Exercise Physiology. He researches the effects of exercise on the survival rates of heart and cancer patients. He receives funding from Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Food Standards Agency and the MS Society. He will join UEA from Sheffield Hallam University in March.

“The university plays a leading role in biomedical and health research and I am delighted to welcome four such experienced colleagues to our team,” said Prof Ian Harvey, Dean of UEA’s Faculty of Health.

“Each will bring enormous value in their own fields as we further enhance our expertise in health research and teaching. I know they share the faculty’s vision of making a significant impact in health provision and we very much look forward to their respective contributions here.”