New Year's Honours List
Posted on 04/01/2011
Professor Sir Robin Murray
King’s College London has featured prominently in the 2011 New Year's Honours list.
Professor Sir Robin Murray, FKC, Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, has been knighted for services to medicine. Robin Murray graduated in medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1968, and began his training in psychiatry in 1972 at the Maudsley Hospital. He started researching at the Institute of Psychiatry (closely connected to the Maudsley and since 1997 part of King’s College London) in 1975 where he has, for the most part, remained ever since.
Professor Murray is currently Britain’s most highly cited psychiatry researcher, and is the third most highly cited researcher in schizophrenia in the world. He has won most of the major prizes in psychiatry and has been honoured with awards from countries throughout the world including the USA, Germany, Finland, Italy, Brazil and Denmark. He was also awarded a lifetime achievement award by King’s College London in 2008. In 2010 he joined a long line of distinguished scientists to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, only five of whom have been psychiatrists.
The bulk of Professor Murray’s work has been in the field of schizophrenia. His major contribution has been to outline and quantify some specific environmental causes for the disorder such as obstetric events, other early childhood events and social adversity. His research has implications for prevention and has influenced policy. His work has spanned controversial areas such as linking cannabis misuse to psychosis and the increased incidence of schizophrenia in people from black and ethnic minority groups.
Sir Robin is dedicated to nurturing young researchers and has personally supervised over 60 graduate students to achieve higher research degrees, many now senior academics around the world. He has continued his clinical work in the NHS, and he continues to lead his research group at the Institute.
On accepting the award Professor Murray said: ‘I am pleased that my contribution into schizophrenia research has been recognised. Hopefully this might encourage others to devote their skills (or money) to research into its causes and towards better treatments.’
Dr Allison Streetly, Director, NHS Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Screening Programme, Division of Health and Social Care Research, King's College London, awarded OBE for services to healthcare. Dr Streetly has led the national screening programme since it was set up in 2001.
Ron Kerr, an Honorary Fellow of the College, who is Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT), which is part of King’s Health Partners, has also been knighted for services to healthcare. In addition to his distinguished leadership of GSTT, Sir Ron is Chairman of the Association of UK University Hospitals.
There were two further honours relevant to King’s Health Partners. Michael Parker, Chairman of the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, receives a CBE. John Collinson, an Honorary Fellow of the College who is retiring as Executive Director of the King’s College Hospital Charity after many years of service in various capacities both at Denmark Hill and in national charitable and policymaking arenas, receives an OBE.
Another Honorary Fellow of the College, Lord Weidenfeld, the distinguished publisher and philanthropist, has received a GBE.
In addition, the honours list confirmed that the honorary knighthood awarded last year to the Principal has been made ‘substantive’ following his being granted British citizenship (alongside his American citizenship).
[Photograph: Laura Ngwazi]
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' 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