Sam is the Chair / Professor of Paediatrics in Cambridge and the Director of the (yet to be built) Cambridge Children’s Research Institute. Of Iranian ancestry, Sam was born and brought up in Germany where he went to school and completed National Service. He then moved to England to read medicine at Oxford, followed by specialist training in paediatrics and paediatric oncology in London. He completed his PhD at the Wellcome Sanger Institute where he was a Group Leader from 2018 to 2026. His research focuses on the origins of childhood cancer, utilising genomic data science. In his clinical research, he is looking at implementing genomics to improve the care of children with cancer.