Rate My Professor Jane Norman

Professor Jane Norman is the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, a position she has held since January 2025, having previously served as Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor from December 2022. She graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1986 and was awarded an MD by the same institution in 1992, following clinical and academic training in obstetrics and gynaecology in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Her earlier academic appointments include Regius Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Head of the Section of Reproductive and Maternal Medicine at the University of Glasgow from 2006 to 2008, Professor of Maternal and Fetal Health and Director of the Edinburgh Tommy’s Centre for Maternal and Fetal Health Research at the University of Edinburgh from 2008 to 2019, and Vice-Principal for People and Culture at the University of Edinburgh from 2013 to 2019. She subsequently served as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Bristol from 2019 to 2022.

Professor Norman’s research has focused on the factors responsible for the initiation of normal and preterm parturition, with particular emphasis on pregnancy stressors including obesity, maternal depression and stress, inflammation and hypoxia. Her work has included large multicentre randomised trials testing interventions such as drugs, diagnostic devices and packages of care for the prevention of preterm birth and stillbirth, as well as laboratory and preclinical studies demonstrating the inflammatory nature of parturition. This research has informed national and international clinical guidelines, including those from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the World Health Organization. She maintains fellowships with the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In 2020 she was awarded the Eardley Holland Medal by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. She has served on grant-awarding panels, including as chair of the Wellcome Trust Science Interview Panel, and as a member of the 2021 UK Research Excellence Framework clinical medicine panel. She was a Non-Executive Director of University Hospitals Bristol and Weston from 2021 to 2024 and has been a member of the UK Research and Innovation Board since 2024.