Dear Colleagues

 

To mark the Diamond Jubilee in 2013, 12 Regius Professorships were awarded by Her Majesty The Queen to universities across the UK for exceptionally high quality teaching and research in a particular discipline. King’s was awarded the first ever Regius Professorship of Psychiatry.

 

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Professor Sir Simon Wessely will be taking up this unique and prestigious role from 1 February 2017. 

 

As Regius Professor of Psychiatry Sir Simon will work to nurture and foster the discipline of academic psychiatry through a range of activities including;

 

•   promoting the academic endeavour within psychiatry with a special emphasis on the next generation of trainees and disciplines

•   promoting the place of psychiatry within medicine through fostering interactions with the other disciplines

•   promoting the contributions that the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) and King’s make towards improving mental health and its public understanding in the country and internationally

•   helping the IoPPN, King’s and its King’s Health Partners in fundraising efforts in the service of psychiatry and mental health

 

Only 26 Regius Professorships have been granted since the reign of Queen Victoria.  They are awarded to reflect the national and international recognition of excellence in research; the leading role of the university in translating the research into use in wider society as a contribution to knowledge, or to solving a problem; a direct and significant benefit to the UK’s economic effectiveness and productivity at a regional or national scale; and in our case, the opportunity to mark the founding of the original Maudsley Hospital almost a century ago.  The title conveys no extra funding or powers, but brings the prestige of the chair having been endorsed by the Crown.

 

Sir Simon has had a tremendous and distinguished career in psychiatry with an international research reputation.  He trained at the Maudsley and is now Chair of Psychological Medicine at the IoPPN, Co-Director of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research and President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.  His main interests are the boundaries between medicine and psychiatry and military health, and he has published extensively in these areas. He has acted as a spokesperson for psychiatry and medicine and is committed to public engagement. 

 

Sir Simon's research is informed by epidemiology and interdisciplinary collaboration within and outside of medicine.  Through his teaching experiences and contact with junior faculty staff, he has become committed to improving psychiatry education for all trainees. Awarded Knight Bachelor for services to Military Healthcare and to Psychological Medicine in 2013,  Sir Simon was cited as having ‘dramatically improved mental health services for the Armed Forces. His academic work led to a better understanding of Gulf War Illness and to more effective psychological support for the armed services. His work has spread beyond the UK to the US and Australia and he works closely with a number of charities in support of ex-servicemen and women.’

 

The partnership between the Institute of Psychiatry, now IoPPN, and the Maudsley, has fundamentally changed the science of psychiatry and we are honoured that King’s will be able to reflect this with the appointment of the first ever Regius Professor of Psychiatry, Professor Sir Simon Wessely.  Please join me in congratulating Sir Simon on this exceptional honour. 

Best wishes,

Professor Edward Byrne AC

President & Principal

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