Officers of the British Thyroid Association

Professor Kristien Boelaert

President -  Professor Kristien Boelaert PhD, MRCP (Birmingham)

Kristien Boelaert is a Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham with a research interest in thyroid diseases. She qualified in medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and completed her postgraduate education in the West Midlands and the University of Birmingham as a Clinical Lecturer and an MRC Clinician Scientist. Kristien was appointed to Senior Lecturer in 2011 and became Professor in 2020.

Kristien’s clinical research interests include the management of thyroid dysfunction, nodules and cancer, as well as endocrine disorders in pregnancy. Her laboratory research programme focuses on the pathogenesis of thyroid cancer, and she is involved in a number of clinical trials in the field of thyroid diseases. She has published more than 150 papers over the last 20 years spanning discovery science, clinical research and trials and practice guidelines.

Kristien is the Chair of the Clinical Committee of the Society for Endocrinology and sits on various committees of the American Endocrine Society and the American Thyroid Association. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of the Endocrine Society and Advisory Board member of Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. The main themes of her current research programme are thermal ablation techniques for thyroid nodules and cardiometabolic consequences of hyperthyroidism.

  • Professor Bijay Vaidya

Secretary - Professor Bijay Vaidya PhD, FRCP (Exeter)

Bijay Vaidya is a Consultant Endocrinologist at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, and an Honorary Clinical Professor at the University of Exeter Medical School in Exeter. He obtained his undergraduate medical degree from the Darbhanga Medical College, India. He completed specialist training in endocrinology, diabetes and general medicine in Cardiff, Middlesbrough, and Newcastle upon Tyne, and received a PhD degree from the University of Newcastle for his studies on genetics of autoimmune endocrine disorders.

 

He has longstanding clinical and research interest in thyroid diseases, particularly thyroid disorders in pregnancy, and co-authored over 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has served as treasurer and an executive committee member of the British Thyroid Association, a member of the Society for Endocrinology (SfE) clinical committee and a convenor for the SfE Clinical Update (thyroid strand). He is an executive committee member of the European Thyroid Association and a member of the SfE programme committee. He has served as a member of guideline development task forces for the NICE, the Royal College of Physicians, the European Thyroid Association, and the European Group for Graves’ Orbitopathy. He is a joint editor-in-chief of the journal, Thyroid Research