Dr Raha Pazoki
Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences
Membership and affiliation
In 2020/21, Dr. Pazoki supported colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic by organizing a workshop on remote Final Year Project (FYP) supervision and creating a “For Supervisor” content area in Blackboard, which remains in use. She also co-designed a staff well-being survey with Dr. Daniel Bishop to assess the pandemic's impact on colleagues. Dr. Pazoki took the initiative to organize International Women’s Day events in 2022 at DLS and jointly between DLS and HS in 2023. She also organized the “Meet the Promoted” workshop in both 2021 and 2024.
In 2021, Dr. Pazoki was appointed Departmental Chair of the Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT) for DLS. Her leadership in forming a writing panel, collecting evidence, and coordinating between SATs contributed to Brunel University's first Athena Swan Silver Award. She subsequently supported the HS department in their application, resulting in Brunel's second Silver Award for gender equality. Praised by colleagues and the Dean, Dr. Pazoki collaborated with Dr. Terry Dovey to develop an operational action plan to implement the five-year Silver Action Plan. Her leadership also led to the creation of a Brightspace community page for Athena Swan, the integration of an Athena Swan topic in Level 4 diagnostic essays, a presentation at the CHMLS International Women’s Day 2023, the organization of Ada Lovelace Day 2023, and the generation of a report on the academic promotion gender gap. Additionally, Dr. Pazoki contributed to various Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) activities as a member of the CHMLS ED&I Committee.
Dr. Pazoki consistently leads curriculum planning. In 2021/22, she redeveloped BB1719, Introduction to Data Analysis, enhancing content and teaching methods to improve student learning and assessment readiness. In 2022/23, she proposed and developed a new block, BB3711, Epidemiology and Disease Prevention, which was approved and launched under her leadership. She designed interactive sessions, introduced the Doku tool for formative assessment, and created a Team-Based Learning (TBL) session, all of which received positive student feedback. Dr. Pazoki has led and delivered this module continuously. Since the 2023/24 academic year, she has also led the Assessment block Synoptic Examination 3 (BB3804).
Over the years, Dr. Pazoki has built an international reputation and is recognized as an expert by multiple independent organizations. Since her promotion in August 2023, she has reviewed two grant proposals for UKRI (in 2024). She currently serves on the editorial board of BMC Cardiovascular Disorders and is the academic editor for a special issue of MDPI Healthcare Journal on “Advances in Prediction, Prevention, and Precision Medicine for Myocardial Infarction and Stroke.” Dr. Pazoki regularly receives invitations to peer review for high-impact journals, including Nature Communications, eBioMedicine (Lancet group), Circulation, Stroke, and Scientific Reports. In February 2025, she was invited by the media to write an expert review alongside prominent figures in the field, commenting on a paper published in Nature Medicine. She has also been invited as an external examiner by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for a viva in June 2025. Dr. Pazoki has established collaborations with research groups at Cambridge, Liverpool, the Million Veteran Program, and the University of Bern. She has examined dissertations at Imperial College London, spoken at prestigious societies, and reviewed grants for the MRC and British Council Newton Fund. Additionally, she has reviewed multiple MRC DTP applications at Imperial College London.