News archive 2010

King’s Health Partners appointment

26 Aug 2010, PR 182/10

Professor Simon Lovestone, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, has been appointed as Director of Research to King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC).

King’s Health Partners is one of the UK’s five Academic Health Sciences Centres (AHSC). It brings together the College and three successful NHS Foundation Trusts (Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley). As an AHSC, King’s Health Partners delivers health care to patients and undertakes health-related science and research, while also playing an important role in teaching and education.

Professor Simon Lovestone, who is also Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, said on his appointment: ‘I am delighted to be taking up my new role as Director of Research for King’s Health Partners and feel strongly that the establishment of our academic health sciences centre provides a once in a career opportunity to rethink and refocus biomedical research for patient and population benefits.

‘We must capitalise on our strong position in basic research, our excellence in translational and applied research and our strengths in social and population sciences. If we can do so, and combine this with our outstanding clinical excellence and the almost unparalleled access to a huge and diverse local population,  then we can fulfil our vision and consolidate our position as a leading driver of health related research, not only in the UK but internationally.’

King’s Health Partners’ Executive Director, Professor Robert Lechler, said: ‘I am sure colleagues across the partner organisations will join me in welcoming and supporting Simon as he takes up his new appointment.  Simon’s success – and therefore that of King’s Health Partners – will depend on Simon working closely with senior colleagues across our four partner organisations to deliver excellence across the research agenda.’

Notes to editors

Professor Simon Lovestone
Simon Lovestone is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He has been an consultant Old Age Psychiatrist since 1989 and the Clinical Leader of a multi-disciplinary Old Age Psychiatry clinical team at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust since 1991. Simon has been the Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health since 2007.

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.



Further information
Louise Pratt
Acting Public Relations and Communications Manager
Institute of Psychiatry
Tel: +44 (0)207 848 5378
Email: louise.a.pratt@kcl.ac.uk

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