Rate My Professor Simon Gates

Professor Simon Gates is Professor of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU), University of Birmingham, where he serves as Deputy Director. He is involved in the design, supervision, analysis, and reporting of clinical trials in paediatric cancer and other fields. Gates holds a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Bristol (1985), PhD from Imperial College (1990), DIC, Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice from the University of Warwick (2015), and FHEA. Originally trained as an ecologist, he worked at the British Trust for Ornithology and University of Oxford Zoology Department before entering clinical trials statistics as trials statistician at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford (1997-2005). He then joined Warwick Clinical Trials Unit until 2018, focusing on trials in emergency and critical care, including as Joint Chief Investigator for the PARAMEDIC trial evaluating mechanical chest compression devices for cardiac arrest patients, published in The Lancet (2015), which won the Trial of the Year Award from the Society for Clinical Trials in 2015. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society since 1999 and served as National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator (2017-2021).

Gates' main research interests lie in improving the efficiency of clinical trials to deliver better, more clinically useful answers more quickly, through innovative complex trial designs, advanced statistical methods, enhanced trial conduct, and improved interpretation and communication of results. He is an advocate for adaptive multi-arm trial designs and Bayesian statistical methods in clinical research. He leads the University of Birmingham for the Trial Methodology Research Partnership and is Statistical Editor for the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group. Previously, he was Associate Editor for Clinical Trials journal (2013-2019). Gates has contributed to committees such as the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme General Board (2018-present), MRC Methodology Research Panel (2011-2016), NIHR Standing Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials Units (2011-2014), and NIHR/MRC EME Board (2009-2015). He leads the Analysis, Interpretation and Communication of Trials module for the MSc Clinical Trials. Key publications include the PARAMEDIC trial (The Lancet, 2015), Interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2009), Midwife continuity of care models versus other models of care for childbearing women (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2024), and Continuous support for women during childbirth (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013).