Rate My Professor James Chalmers

Professor James Chalmers is the Asthma and Lung UK Chair of Respiratory Research and Clinical Professor of Respiratory Research in the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee. He earned his MBChB from the University of Glasgow and a PhD from the MRC Centre for Inflammation Research in Edinburgh, focusing on the immunology of bronchiectasis. Following medical training in South East Scotland, he joined the University of Dundee in 2011 and established his independent research group in 2012. In 2013, he received a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship in Molecular Microbiology, followed by the GSK/British Lung Foundation Chair in Respiratory Research and a Senior Clinical Fellowship from the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office in 2017. As an honorary consultant physician at Ninewells Hospital, he manages a specialist clinic for patients with difficult respiratory infections, particularly bronchiectasis.

Professor Chalmers specializes in respiratory infections, bronchiectasis, COPD, pneumonia, immunology, neutrophilic inflammation, microbiome analysis, proteomics, mucociliary clearance, experimental medicine, biomarkers, and randomized clinical trials. He has authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications, including the Bronchiectasis Severity Index (2014) and the British Thoracic Society Guideline for bronchiectasis in adults (2019). He chaired the 2017 European Bronchiectasis Guidelines, the 2020 European Guidelines for ICS use in COPD, and the European Respiratory Society Living Guideline for COVID-19 management in hospitalized patients. His leadership of the EMBARC registry and the WILLOW trial resulted in brensocatib, the first approved therapy for bronchiectasis. Notable awards include the British Thoracic Society Early Career Investigator Award (2011), John Munro Medal for Excellence in Teaching (2014), Romain Pauwels Award (2017), Patrick Neill Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Cournand Lecture Award (2021), Mid-Career Peer Recognition Award from the American Thoracic Society (2021), and a major US award from the American Thoracic Society (2025). He has served as Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Journal since 2018, Chair of the British Thoracic Society Science and Research Committee, and co-Chair of the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office Translational Clinical Studies Committee.