Professor Wilson completed his medical degree at the Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), then worked in N. Ireland and Scotland as a junior doctor during which he engaged in three years of basic science research in colorectal cancer in QUB. He subsequently trained in clinical oncology in N. Ireland achieving UK accreditation, and then participated in a Visiting Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in the USA. There he received specialist training in medical oncology, early phase clinical trials, gastro-intestinal cancer, clinical pharmacology and drug development. He was jointly appointed as a Consultant and Senior Lecturer between the regional Cancer Centre in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology in QUB in 2001. Following this, he set up the first early phase cancer clinical trials programme on the island of Ireland, and also set up the regional N. Ireland Cancer Trials Network. He is Clinical Director of this regional network and also of the N. Ireland Cancer Trials Centre. He works as a medical oncologist in gastro-intestinal cancer (mainly colorectal cancer but also in small bowel cancer and peritoneal malignancies) and conducts biological and translational research in these diseases. He is Professor in Cancer Medicine in QUB, Chief Investigator on a variety of local, national and international phase I, II and III cancer clinical trials and is Chair of the UK National Cancer Research Institute Colorectal Clinical Studies Group.