# Tom Solomon (neurologist)

Thomas Solomon CBE (born c.1966) is professor of neurology at the University of Liverpool. As director of the Pandemic Institute and of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (HPRU EZI), he has conducted research on Ebola, Zika virus disease, and COVID-19. Alongside his colleagues in Liverpool, he had a key role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Solomon became vice president (international) of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2021, and in 2024 was elected academic vice president at the Royal College of Physicians. He is the author of Roald Dahl's Marvellous Medicine (2016) and as of 2025 holds two Guiness World Records.
Solomon studies emerging viruses, especially those which infect the brain. He heads the Liverpool Brain Infections Group, which studies encephalitis, particularly Japanese encephalitis, enterovirus 71 and other types of meningitis. His science communication work as the "Running Mad Professor" raises awareness of emerging brain infections, as well as helping raise funds for charity.

## Early life and education

Tom Solomon grew up in Manchester as one of five children, with his father, an accountant, and his mother, a teacher. Between 1976 and 1984 he attended Manchester Grammar School, and later gained a place at Wadham College, Oxford, to study medicine. During his clinical years at the John Radcliffe Hospital, he went on elective to Mozambique, where he studied malaria.

## Early career

In 1990, Solomon became house officer to David Weatherall, haematologist at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the John Radcliffe. There, he came to care for Roald Dahl, who had at the time been diagnosed with leukaemia.
In his late 20s, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust scholarship to the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam (1994-7), where he researched and contributed to efforts concerning the Japanese encephalitis epidemic. There, he completed his PhD on the central nervous system infections, under the supervision of Nicholas White.
In 1998, he became clinical lecturer in neurological science at the University of Liverpool with honorary positions in the Department of Medical Microbiology and at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
With the support of a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship (1998–2004), he trained in arbovirology (the study of viruses transmitted by arthropods, such as mosquitoes) at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, with Alan Barrett. Solomon became clinical senior lecturer in neurological science at the University of Liverpool in 2005 and was awarded a UK Medical Research Council Senior Clinical Fellowship to continue his studies on Brain Infections.

## Later career

He set up the Liverpool Neurological Infectious Diseases course in 2007, which has since run annually. He was appointed Professor of Neurological Science in 2007, and in 2010 became director of the newly formed Institute of Infection and Global Health. In 2014 he was appointed director of the UK Government's National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections. This unit works on a number of emerging infections, including the Ebola virus.
He was appointed director of the Pandemic Institute in 2022.

## Research

As director of the Pandemic Institute and of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (HPRU EZI), Solomon has conducted research on Ebola, Zika virus disease, and COVID-19. Alongside his colleagues in Liverpool, he had a key role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has a special interest in encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis. He showed that Japanese encephalitis virus can cause an illness with leg paralysis which could be confused for polio.
He also highlighted the importance of dengue, a related mosquito-borne virus, as a cause of neurological disease. He works on the origins, evolution, and spread of Japanese encephalitis. He has played a major role in the global campaign to control Japanese encephalitis through vaccination. This included developing the Liverpool Outcome Score for quantifying the disability caused by Japanese encephalitis and helping produce the WHO Surveillance Standards for detecting the disease. He is also an expert on enterovirus 71, which causes hand foot and mouth disease and encephalitis. He works on improving the diagnosis, better understanding the disease mechanisms, and strengthening clinical management.

## Science communication and public engagement

As the "Running Mad Professor" he has increased awareness of encephalitis, whilst also helping to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Encephalitis Society, for which he Chairs the Professional Advisory Panel. At the 2010 London Marathon where he raised more than £20,000, he won a Guinness World Record for the fastest Marathon Dressed as a Doctor.
In 2012 he was an Olympic torch bearer. He has given numerous public lectures, including the Shrewsbury School Scholars Day Lecture, 2012, and the Emry's Jones Lecture at Merchant Taylors' School. To increase public and patient involvement in the Institute of Infection and Global Health, he established the Saturday Science Programme at World Museum Liverpool.
To mark the first World Encephalitis Day, creation of the Encephalitis Society, he initiated the "World’s Biggest Brain", winning a Guinness World Record for the largest human image of an organ.
At TEDx Liverpool 2014, he gave a talk on "Sex, Drugs and Emerging Viruses", appearing alongside Beermat Entrepreneur Mike Southon, and educationalist Sir Ken Robinson.
Tom Solomon also writes for The Guardian and The Independent newspapers and The Conversation on issues relating to biomedical science, particularly on emerging infections, neuroscience, and women in science, and appears on television and radio. He discussed the threat to the UK of Ebola virus with Andrew Neal on BBC Television's The Sunday Politics. On BBC Radio 4's Great Lives he discussed the children's author Roald Dahl, whose fascination with medical science impacted both on his life and his writing.

## Roald Dahl

Solomon's conversions with Dahl during his early years as a newly qualified physician formed the basis of his book Roald Dahl's Marvellous Medicine. It was published in 2016 and explores the impact of medicine on Dahl’s life, including his role in developing the Wade-Dahl-Till valve to treat his son Theo’s hydrocephalus after a serious head injury. It also addresses the death of his daughter Olivia, his work in stroke rehabilitation following his first wife Patricia Neal’s illness, and his 1986 open letter advocating for measles vaccination amid UK outbreaks. The book further connects these experiences to his children’s stories, suggesting that The BFG’s distinctive speech patterns may have been influenced by Neal’s post-stroke language.

## Awards and honours

Solomon was awarded the Royal College of Physicians' Linacre Lectureship in 2006, and in 2015 its Moxon Medal; this is awarded every three years for "outstanding observation and research in clinical medicine". In 2019 he was elected to the RCP council.
Solomon was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to neurological and emerging infections research.
In 2021 he was made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and later that year was elected to the position of vice president (international). In 2024 he was elected academic vice president at the Royal College of Physicians. He is running for President of the Royal College of Physicians in 2025 and was officially sanctioned in the runup to the election and given a formal warning by the RCP election returning officer for breaches of the Candidate Code of Practice for RCP Elections for canvassing via the media and publishing embargoed election materials prior to publication by the RCP.

## Selected publications
### Articles

* "Neurological manifestations of dengue infection". The Lancet. 355 (9209): 1053–1059. 25 March 2000. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)02036-5. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 10744091. (Co-author)
* "Origin and evolution of Japanese encephalitis virus in southeast Asia". Journal of Virology. 77 (5): 3091–3098. March 2003. doi:10.1128/jvi.77.5.3091-3098.2003. ISSN 0022-538X. PMID 12584335. (Co-author)
* "Virology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and control of enterovirus 71". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 10 (11): 778–790. 1 November 2010. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70194-8. ISSN 1473-3099. PMID 20961813.(Co-author)
* "Causes of encephalitis and differences in their clinical presentations in England: a multicentre, population-based prospective study". The Lancet. Infectious Diseases. 10 (12): 835–844. December 2010. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70222-X. ISSN 1474-4457. PMID 20952256. (Co-author)
* "Neurological associations of COVID-19". The Lancet Neurology. 19 (9): 767–783. 1 September 2020. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(20)30221-0. ISSN 1474-4422. PMC 7332267. PMID 32622375. (Co-author)
* "A multifaceted intervention to improve diagnosis and early management of hospitalised patients with suspected acute brain infections in Brazil, India, and Malawi: an international multicentre intervention study". Lancet (London, England): S0140–6736(25)00263–6. 10 March 2025. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00263-6. ISSN 1474-547X. PMID 40081400. (Co-author)fdeng

### Books

* Roald Dahl's Marvellous Medicine. Liverpool University Press. 2016. ISBN 978-1-78138-339-1.