Professor Boardman trained in neonatal medicine in London (Hammersmith Hospital and University College London Hospital), and undertook a clinical research fellowship at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London leading to the award of PhD in neonatal neuroscience. He completed clinical training in 2007 and became Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, where his research programme focused on perinatal brain injury. In 2012 he took over the scientific direction of a laboratory at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, and was promoted to Professor of Neonatal Medicine in 2017.

• Quantitative magenetic resonance imaging of the developing human brain
• Understanding risk and resilience for brain development after preterm birth
• Methods for early detection of children at risk of cognitive impaiment
• Strategies for improving life course outcome after preterm birth

Professor Boardman’s goal is to develop and evaluate neuroprotective strategies for fetuses and neonates at risk of brain injury and poor neurodevelopmental outcome. He researches the role of neonatal quantitative MR imaging to investigate causal pathways to brain injury, the factors that confer risk or resilience to injury after perinatal adversity, and the relationship between quantitative MR features and long-term functional outcome. He is scientific director of the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh / MRC Centre for Reproductive Health.

Professor Boardman is an honorary consultant neonatologist with the NHS. His clinical interest is neonatal neurology.