Emeritus Professor Peter Howdle

Professor Peter Howdle has enjoyed a highly distinguished clinical academic career, pursued substantially at Leeds.  After obtaining a BSc in Physiology in 1969 and qualifying in Medicine in 1972, he was House Physician to Professor Monty Losowsky at St James’s University Hospital and House Surgeon in the same hospital; and he trained in General Medicine both as a Senior House Officer and as a Registrar in the Leeds training systems.  The speed with which he gained his membership of the Royal College of Physicians (in 1975) reflected his clinical talent and emerging academic excellence:  following a successful Research Fellowship in the Department of Medicine, he obtained an MD (1985) with distinction, and was appointed as a Tutor, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer.  He broadened and supplemented his experience in the United States – at Harvard at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Children's Hospital in Boston (arguably the most academically eminent of the institutions available to him); and was promoted as Professor of Clinical Education in 1996 and became Professor of Clinical Medicine in 2006.

Peter has been a long-standing and outstanding force for excellence: he contributed signally to the development of undergraduate medical education and his leadership was recognised not only in his appointment to a Promotional Chair but also in senior roles, including Head of the Section of Medicine, Surgery and Anaesthesia, Director of NHS Liaison within the School of Medicine and Chair of the School’s Promotions Committee.  His ability and insights were recognised nationally in appointments as a Performance Assessor for the General Medical Council and as an Assessor for Quality Assurance for UK Medical Schools.

He is also a distinguished researcher, whose interests lay in gastroenterological medicine with a special interest in diseases of the bowel and liver, resulting in research publications and extensive national recognition as a leading figure in coeliac disease as a Trustee of the Coeliac Trust of the United Kingdom and a member of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Coeliac Society of the United Kingdom.  He has been a Royal College member of the Joint Specialty Committee for Gastroenterology and Hepatology for many years and a member of the Standing Committee on Nutrition at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Peter is much sought after as a visiting lecturer and visiting examiner and has lectured extensively across the world.  His many distinctions and awards include a Fulbright Senior Scholarship, grants from the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council and funding for coeliac disease and associated other gastroenterological disorders.  His interests were always patient-centred: his most recent Wellcome Trust Grant which was for engaging people in clinical research.

He has authored and edited standard texts on coeliac disease and clinical hepatology.  His publications include work on the basic science and immunology of gastroenterological disorders and liver disease working both in the laboratory and in the clinic, with a focus on the discovery of basic biological observations that would inform clinical diagnosis and clinical care.  Most of his research was published in highly respected clinical and gastroenterological journals and the scientific value of his contributions was reflected in papers in Nature Genetics in 2007 and 2008.

Although Peter has been one of the busiest clinicians and clinical academics in the United Kingdom, he has always found time for wider interests: he served as Vice-President of the British Methodist Church during 2002-03 and remains the co-Chair of the Joint Implementation Commission for the Anglican-Methodist Covenant.  He has been happily married for many years to his childhood sweetheart, Susan.

Professor Peter Howdle has made huge contributions to – and brought great distinction upon – the Leeds Medical School, the University and clinical care in Leeds.  If it is possible to extract a single theme from his contributions and achievements, it is perhaps that he is one of the most caring of doctors, educators, colleagues and clinical academic leaders; many people, whether as patients or as colleagues, have benefited greatly from his kindness, consideration and wise counsel.