Professor Alan Smyth is Professor of Child Health in the School of Medicine (University of Nottingham) and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine (Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust). He has a major research interest in novel ways of treating infection in cystic fibrosis and strategies to detect and minimise the adverse effects of treatment. He is also joint Editor-in-Chief of Thorax, one of the world's leading respiratory medicine journals.