Dr Abdulkarim Ekzayez

Dr Ekzayez is a Health System Expert at the Centre for Conflict and Health Research at King's College London. He is a Co-Investigator of a four-year NIHR funded project, Research for Health System Strengthening in Northern Syria (R4HSSS). His prior experience includes various academic and consultancy roles with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, American University of Beirut, Chatham House, Chemonics International, Blumont International and Integrity Global. He has also led major humanitarian health programmes for Save the Children International and Expertise France, with involvement in polio eradication programmes, Primary Health Care, health information systems and health governance initiatives. He specialises in Health Systems Strengthening, Humanitarian Health, Health Security, Epidemiology, the public health impacts of conflict and building health research capacity in conflict settings. His medical background includes clinical experience in neurosurgery, gleaned from his medical training program between 2010 and 2013. In 2013, Dr Ekzayez quitted his training to work in field hospitals providing war-related trauma care in Northwest Syria.

Dr Ekzayez has authored over 30 academic journal articles and four chapter books on topics related to health and conflict. He is the General Secretary of the Syrian British Medical Society, Deputy Chair of the Syria Public Health Network, Board Member of the Syrian British Consortium, Trustee at Shafak Syria and Amna (Refugee Healing Network). He was awarded his MD from Aleppo University and his MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and his PhD on health systems and conflict at King's College London.

Professor Simon Rushton

Simon joined the Department of Politics and International Relations in January 2013 and was promoted to Professor of International Politics in January 2022. Prior to his move to Sheffield, he was based at Aberystwyth University’s Department of International Politics where he completed his PhD and subsequently held posts as Lecturer and Research Fellow.

​

Simon's research has been funded by the ESRC, DFID/FCDO, NIHR, MRC, Welcome Trust, and Newton Fund, working with partners in Nepal, Colombia, Bangladesh, Ghana and Vietnam. He is a member of Visiting Faculty at the Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences in Kathmandu and a member of the Executive Committee of the British International Studies Association.

Simon is currently the Department’s Director of Research and Innovation. Simon’s research interests focus on the global politics of health, peace and

conflict, and participatory research methods. His work has looked in particular at international responses to infectious diseases; the links between health and national security; the changing architecture of global health governance; healthcare delivery in conflict and other crisis

situations; and post-conflict peacebuilding. His current research projects are in Nepal and Colombia.

​

In 2021, the Improbable Dialogues project team, of which Simon was the UK Principal Investigator, was awarded the ESRC’s prize for Outstanding Societal Impact.