Cathy Sudlow, Professor of Neurology and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, is an outstanding clinical epidemiologist who has focused on large scale, collaborative health data integration initiatives to tackle the causes, prevention and treatment of diseases affecting people in middle and old age. Her research leadership has had a substantial and positive influence on population cohort and linked health data research across the spectrum of common complex diseases. Cathy is the Director of the BHF Data Science Centre where she has led the development of the largest linkage of over 54 million health records with NHS Digital. This has had considerable impact across a range of COVID and non-COVID related research programmes.