Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge

The Professor of Pathology is an established (statutory) chair at the University of Cambridge which was established in 1883. Traditionally, the Professor of Pathology was also the formal Head of department. However, in 2023 Professor Adrian Liston was elected to the Professor of Pathology while Professor Heike Laman was elected 10th Head of department and became the first woman to take on the role since the founding of the department in 1883.^[6]

• 1883-1897 Charles Roy - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 1897-1898 Alfredo Kanthack - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 1899-1922 German Sims Woodhead - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 1922-1961 Henry Roy Dean - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 1962-1975 Ronald Greaves - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 1975-1987 Peter Wildy - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 1987-1998 Malcolm Ferguson-Smith - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 1998-2011 Andrew Wyllie - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 2011-2022 Geoffrey Smith - Professor of Pathology & Head of Department
• 2022- Heike Laman - Head of Department (re-elected in 2025)
• 2023- Adrian Liston - Professor of Pathology

Notable alumni of the department include:^[7]

• Henry Roy Dean - Professor of Pathology and responsible for significant pathology teaching at Cambridge and the current building on Tennis Court Road in 1928. With Ronald Greaves, developed reliable methods for freeze-drying plasma, the process now known as lyophilisation.
• Andrew Wyllie - Made important discoveries about apoptosis, including the breakdown of DNA during apoptosis and its role in tumor growth
• Malcolm Ferguson-Smith - Distinguished medical geneticist from Glasgow, held the chair from 1987 to 1998. He emphasised the importance of Pathology in the analysis of the genome and so positioned the department well for the 21st Century.
• Geoffrey L. Smith - Virologist and medical research authority in the area of Vaccinia virus and the family of Poxviruses. Part of the UK's response to the 2022 Mpox epidemic.
• Ashley Moffett - Moffett has been at the forefront of research into the immunology of trophoblast invasion and its role in placentation for over 25 years. She became a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2015, and a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019.