Yesterday evening I gave my inaugural lecture as Professor of Gastroenterology in Edinburgh.
It was a moment I had imagined, avoided, postponed, feared, and finally stepped into. And standing there, in front of colleagues, friends, mentors, and my children, I realised the talk was not about achievement.
It was about people.
Where Progress Really Comes From
Over the last 24 years I have learned that progress in IBD does not come from chasing accolades or chasing gene hits from discovery to function.
It comes from caring
It comes from curiosity
It comes from listening to the person sitting in front of you
Every major turn in my work began not in the lab or the lecture hall, but in the quiet corners of a clinic room, where someone trusted me with their story.
IBD as a Human Landscape
IBD forces us to confront the full range of human experience. Fear. Fatigue. Pain. Hope.
And as clinicians and scientists, we face our own internal landscape: the doubts, the failures, the rejections, the unexpected forks in the road. I spoke about those last night too.
Because the truth is simple. We learn more from the setbacks than the successes.
The Striving Mindset
What matters, always, is how we respond.
We try again. We pay closer attention.
We ask better questions.
We strive.
Two Decades of Change in Edinburgh
My lecture traced the journey of IBD care across two decades in Edinburgh.
The explosion of biologics. The impact of early effective therapy. The insights from PREdiCCt that is shifting how we think about lifestyle, stress, depression, diet, and flare risk. And the emergence of dynamic biomarker modelling and AI tools like SENTINEL that are beginning to reshape what proactive care might look like.
We have transformed IBD care, by adopting new data early and documenting the results. Of that I am most proud.
Compassion at the Centre
But beneath all of that science lies something more fundamental.
A commitment to compassion.
An insistence on equity.
A belief that every patient deserves high-quality, human care, wherever they live.
Standing on Shoulders
Last night was also about legacy. Edinburgh has a long IBD history, and I am proud to follow in the footsteps of many including: Wilfred Card, Sir John Bruce, Bill Sircus, Anne Ferguson and many others.
None of them were defined by prestige. They were defined by service. They paid attention. They cared.
Leadership, as It Really Is
I want to continue that. Not through grand gestures, but through daily practice.
Through curiosity. Creativity. Teamwork. And empathy.
And I spoke about leadership; not the glamorous version, but the real thing.
The loneliness.
The responsibility.
The feeling of being deeply flawed and striving nonetheless.
Because leadership in medicine is not about certainty. It is about caring enough to act even when the outcome is not fully clear.
A Personal Full-Circle Moment
For me, the most meaningful part of the evening came at the end, when I looked out and saw Holly and Cameron.
They have grown up through all of this: the research, the running, the flights, the long days, the hard years, the rebuilding. We have lived through some tough times together, much of which was fostered on them by my poor decisions. Last night they were there to bear witness to a new chapter.
I was proud of them. And quietly proud of myself.
Today, Tomorrow, and the Horizon Ahead
Last night I was simply tired.
Today I flew to Venice for work, and the rhythm of life continues.
But something shifted last night.
A circle closed.
A new one opened.
The Heart of the Work
The future of IBD care will be defined by prediction, prevention, and personalisation. But it will only work if we hold on to the human heart of the work. If we stay humble. If we stay curious. If we continue to listen.
That, more than anything, is what the lecture was really about.
If you want to follow along as we build the next chapter, from dynamic biomarker modelling to the SENTINEL project, subscribe to Atomic IBD and join the conversation.
The journey continues.
I will post a video sharing some further thoughts about this, and a recording of my Inaugural Lecture in the next day or two, direct to YouTube - subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@charlie_lees
Congratulations
A huge thank you - to you and to your amazing team Professor Lees. Seven years ago our son arrived in Edinburgh from Australia to study. He was admitted to hospital and came under your extraordinary care. Your prompt and appropriate treatment of his Crohn's disease, with excellent follow up in the years afterwards transformed him into a well, fit young man who loved being in the gymnastics club, hiking in the Scottish hills, and wild swimming. I met you once and was able to thank you in person, as an incredibly grateful parent. He is now back in Sydney, and still well, all thanks to you. You are amazing, and your active listening and adept skillset has made such a huge difference to the lives of so many.