Member in Profile...

Dr Robert [Bob] Norman, our current club President, graduated in Biological Sciences from the University of Leicester in 1978 and was awarded a PhD from Imperial College in 1981 for his work on characterising acetylcholine neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Université of Nice, studying proteins involved in electrical signal generation, Bob was invited back to the University of Leicester in 1983 to a lectureship in Medical Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry. He soon transferred to the Department of Medicine as a non-clinical academic scientist. Bob was promoted to a Senior Lectureship in 1995 and, after departmental reorganisation, continued his career in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, serving as Deputy Head of Department for a period. Throughout this time, Bob’s research group worked predominantly on the structure and regulation of ion channel proteins involved in signalling in the heart and blood vessels. He also published research on mechanisms involved in high blood pressure, urinary incontinence and anaesthesia. In 2011, Bob transferred to the Leicester Medical School to develop research interests in medical education. He became Dean of Education for the College of Life Sciences in 2014 where, for six years, he led on strategy on all matters relating to undergraduate and postgraduate students and the delivery of teaching across the four Schools of Medicine, Biological Sciences, Psychology and Allied Health Professions. Bob was awarded a chair in Medical and Bioscience Education in 2017. He retired in 2022 and became a member of the Probus Club of Wigston.