New director of UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

The UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH) have announced that Professor Helen Cross, an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Neurology at GOSH, will take up the post of Director of the institute from 1 September 2022.

The UCL GOS ICH is our primary research partner at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Together we form the largest centre for paediatric medical research outside North America. Research teams and clinicians work together across our organisations to further our Research Hospital vision

As well as her role as an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Neurology at GOSH, Professor Cross is The Prince of Wales’s Chair of Childhood Epilepsy and Head of the Developmental Neurosciences Research and Teaching Department at UCL GOS ICH. The primary focus of her research has been optimising outcomes in the early onset epilepsies, working extensively with patient advocacy groups.

It is an honour and a privilege to have been appointed Director of UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Having spent most of my career at GOSH and the UCL GOS ICH, I am passionate about maintaining the excellence in research and education achieved to date, sharing with others, and so optimising the health and well-being of children.

Professor Helen Cross

Professor Cross is internationally recognised for her work in pre-surgical evaluation and monitoring postsurgical outcomes in children undergoing epilepsy surgery. She is also renowned for her work on the ketogenic diet as a treatment for epilepsy which is now part of NICE guidelines.

In 2015 she was awarded an OBE for services to children with epilepsy and has received awards from around the world that recognised her contribution to research and clinical care for children with epilepsy. Prof Cross was the first, and to date the only woman, to be elected as President of the British Paediatric Neurology Association (2008), and in 2013, the first woman to be elected to the management committee of the International League Against Epilepsy, where she has since been elected as President.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Helen Cross as Director of the UCL GOS Institute of Child Health, our primary research partner. As an established leading researcher and Honorary Consultant at GOSH, Helen is passionate about our Research Hospital vision. I am very much looking forward to working with her even more closely as we continue the excellent relationship that brings to life our vision for children at GOSH and around the world.

Mat Shaw, CEO