Dr Richard Hewitt is an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF) in Respiratory Medicine currently working in the 'Inflammation, Repair and Development (IRD)' Section at the National Heart and Lung Institute. He is completing his specialist registrar training in respiratory and general internal medicine in the North West London rotation. He is an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Richard qualified from Imperial College School of Medicine in 2011 with distinctions in clinical science and clinical practice. He completed an intercalated BSc in Respiratory Science in 2009 achieving first class honours. For his BSc project he investigated genetic susceptibility to acute lung injury after cardiopulmonary bypass which cultivated a strong interest in medical research. He presented his findings at the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting and won the Royal Society of Medicine 'Young Respiratory Investigator' national student prize in 2009. He completed his Foundation and Core Medical Training in North West London, achieving MRCP(UK) in 2014. In conjunction with his postgraduate medical training he has pursued clinical research projects and published journal articles on a range of topics. To gain protected time to pursue scientific research during his clinical training, Richard was appointed to a competitive NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship post in Respiratory Medicine in 2015. In conjunction with this he completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Genomics Medicine at Imperial College (2016-2017). He is now undertaking a period of basic science training in respiratory immunology. His research interests include pulmonary innate immunity, host-environment interactions, immune mechanisms underlying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and the impact of ageing on the lung

Respiratory Medicine, pulmonary fibrosis