Ruth Benson is an Academic Clinical Lecturer in Vascular Surgery at the University of Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit, and SPR in Vascular Surgery at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire. Her doctoral research was supported by a Royal College of Surgeons Fellowship, and studied the impact of endovascular aneurysm surgery on brain function and markers of brain injury. She is part of a team investigating the effect of Dexamethasone on hypoxia induced brain changes, and looking at the role of purines as novel markers of acute tissue ischaemia both in the brain and acutely ischaemic limbs. Her post-doctoral work into gender differences in critical limb ischaemia has been presented internationally.