Phillip Whitfield is professor and head of lipidomics research at the University of the Highlands and Islands, United Kingdom. He received his PhD in lipid biochemistry from the Institute of Child Health, University College London. He then became a Hunter's Hope Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, where he developed novel research methods to improve diagnostic evaluation and assess progression of lysosomal storage disorders, inherited diseases that are characterized by an abnormal buildup of toxic chemicals in the cell. In 2001 he returned to the United Kingdom to continue this work at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge before establishing his own research group at the University of Liverpool. In 2010 he was appointed to his current position at the University of the Highlands and Islands, where his research is focused on the role of lipids and proteins in disease, with key interests in inflammation.