Professor Barbara McGowan is a Consultant and Honorary Reader in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital. She was awarded a PhD from Imperial College London in 2007 for investigating ‘The role of relaxin-3 on energy homeostasis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-axis’ and the role of gut hormones and other neuropeptides in appetite control. She is R&D lead for Diabetes and Endocrinology at GSTT and the South London Specialty lead for the Metabolic and Endocrine research network. She leads the obesity bariatric service at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital where she manages patients with complex obesity.

Her areas of research interest are in gut hormones and appetite control, pharmacotherapy for obesity and remission of type 2 diabetes post-bariatric surgery. She is an investigator for several obesity clinical trials and was awarded an NIHR/RCP/CRN prize in 2016 in recognition of outstanding research within the NHS.

Professor McGowan is an active Trustee of The Association for the Study of Obesity, a member of the ASO obesity management sub-committee and a SCOPE National fellow. She is the Treasurer for the UK Society of Endocrinology and a member of the RCP Advisory Group on Weight and Health.