I originally trained as a veterinarian at Liverpool University and practiced small animal medicine for 6 years before moving into laboratory animal medicine at Smith Kline Beecham in 1989.

In 1994 I joined Glaxo Wellcome to retrain as a toxicological pathologist. Since then I have gained 30 years’ experience in regulatory toxicology / safety assessment and discovery support across a range of therapeutic areas (including inhaled medicines, CNS, oncology) and modalities (small molecules and biopharmaceuticals) within large Pharma in the UK and Italy. From 2005 I worked at GlaxoSmithKline, including a number of years as Head of Pathology. In the last 15 years my experience has expanded to include cell and gene therapies for rare diseases, oncology, CNS and auto-immune disease. I was the nonclinical project team member for Strimvelis (for treatment of ADA-SCID) which achieved a successful marketing application in 2016 - the first licensed ex vivo gene therapy anywhere in the world.

After retiring from GSK in March 2021 I have been working as an independent pathology consultant in my own company (Cornelis Consulting Ltd). I have been a Member / Fellow of the RCPath for 25 years and currently chair the Toxicology Specialty Advisory Committee. I am also a former President of the British Society of Toxicological Pathology.

Professor BouHaidar holds the Personal Chair of Forensic Pathology at the University of Edinburgh and is a Consultant Forensic Pathologist in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In addition to his extensive undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training experience, he was the Training Programme Director for Forensic Histopathology in Scotland and is currently the Associate Postgraduate Dean for Diagnostics (Radiology and Histopathology) in the West of Scotland. Ralph is an external and internal examiner for several universities as well as a senior examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists and previously the Society of Apothecaries. He sits on numerous local and national committees and is the Chair of the Specialist Advisory Committee (Forensic Histopathology) of the Royal College of Pathologists. Ralph leads on CBRN and DVI and is the first pathologist to apply PMCT in Scotland. He is a consultant for the International Committee of the Red Cross and is commonly involved in international work. His main current research interests are in simulation training and the use of technology in Forensic Pathology.