In his inaugural lecture, Professor Duncan Sharp, Dean of the School of Health reflects on a career shaped as much by unexpected conversations as by deliberate choice.

Drawing on key moments across research, health innovation, leadership, and knowledge exchange, he offers candid reflections on the space between chance and design — how serendipity favours the prepared mind, why strategy must translate values into action, and why partnerships are not transactions but long-term commitments to shared public value.

He will also reflect on professorial leadership as stewardship — shaping environments in which people, ideas, and systems can flourish