Professor Neil McHugh graduated from Otago University Medical School, Dunedin, New Zealand, and has undertaken research fellowships at the Walter and Eliza Hall in Melbourne, Australia (1985), Yale University Medical School, United States (1990–1991), and the National Heart and Lung Institute, United Kingdom (2002–2004). He has been a consultant rheumatologist in Bath, United Kingdom, since 1991. He is currently a professor of pharmacoepidemiology and the Head of the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of Bath. His current interests include the serology of autoimmune connective tissue disease, where his group has identified several novel diagnostic autoantibody biomarkers. Professor McHugh also leads a programme of work related to psoriatic disease, including a National Institute for Health Research programme grant on the early detection and optimisation of outcome measures in psoriatic arthritis.