I am deeply honoured to receive the Kathy Sylva Rising Star Award. This recognition means a great deal to me, and it is only possible thanks to the young people, families, and colleagues I have had the privilege of working with. I am really grateful to ACAMH for this award, and to my collaborators across King’s, South London and Maudsley, and our international partners for their support and inspiration.
Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo
26 November 2025
RE-STAR Team & Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo win at Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Awards
Academics from the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry received prestigious prizes and nominations at the ACAMH Awards, held last month.
Held annually, the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) Awards aim to recognise high quality work in evidence based science, both in publication and practice, in the field of child and adolescent mental health. Receiving a nomination is prestigious recognition of work that is at the forefront of the advancement of child and adolescent mental health research, and clinical practice.
Dr Gonzalo Salazar De Pablo wins Kathy Sylva ‘Rising Star’ Award
The Kathy Sylva ‘Rising Star’ Award is presented to someone who has made a significant scientific contribution to child and adolescent mental health literature, within 10 years of their first peer reviewed journal publication.
The 2025 Award was presented to Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo, Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, honorary Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and part of the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children & Young People. It was presented in recognition of his outstanding scientific contributions to child and adolescent mental health.
Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo’s research focuses on the early identification and prediction of bipolar disorder and psychosis in young people, advancing the field through high-impact publications.
The nomination highlighted his exceptional productivity, international collaborations, and leadership. A defining feature of Dr Salazar de Pablo’s work is his commitment to co-production with young people, families, and clinicians, ensuring that research questions and interventions are grounded in lived experience and real-world clinical needs. Receiving this award is a meaningful recognition of his work and his contributions to child and adolescent mental health.
Looking ahead, he hopes to continue developing equitable, accessible, and youth-informed approaches that improve early intervention and long-term outcomes for children and adolescents worldwide.
Lionel Hersov Memorial Award presented to RE-STAR
The Lionel Hersov Memorial Award is given to a practice or research team that has either demonstrated the translation of an evidence base into clinical practice with measurable clinical impact, or demonstrated quality improvement within either clinical or research practice.
This year, it was presented to RE-STAR Academic Researchers (Ars) and its Youth Researcher Panel (Y-RP), a four-year interdisciplinary programme led by researchers from the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and part of the King’s Maudsley Partnership at King’s College London with UCL, Anna Freud and Centre.
We are thrilled that the work of the RE-STAR Team – both the academics and the youth researchers – has been recognised in this way. This collaborative process has been transformative on so many levels, both for those involved and the science we’ve been focused on. Ultimately, we hope this will help us find new ways to promote the mental health of neurodivergent young people.
Dr Susie Chandler, RE-STAR Programme Manager, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, IoPPN
RE-STAR, led by Professor Edmund Sonunga-Barke, explores the interplay between autism and/or ADHD traits, exposure to environmental stressors, and emotional responding in neurodivergent young people, in driving developmental pathways to depression.
Who are the RE-STARs? To me we are a band of neurodiverse adventurer scientists coming together, at a particular moment in time, to explore new ways of doing child and adolescent mental health research by stretching the boundaries of participatory and inter-disciplinary practice. I believe our last four years of work illustrates the creative energy that can be released when researchers from radically different backgrounds come together with young autistic young people and those with ADHD to produce real progress in ideas new, methods, interpretations and interventions.
Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, RE-STAR Chief Investigator, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, IoPPN
The programme works closely with its Youth Researcher Panel, who play an integral role in the planning and delivery of RE-STAR, and contribute to the project in a wide variety of ways, working alongside the academic researchers as ‘co-researchers’, co-analysing and collecting data, and helping to share and communicate the work of RE-STAR to a wider audience.
RE-STAR is funded by UKRI Medical Research Council.
Celebrating the award wins, Head of Department for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Professor Philip Shaw, said, "I know that all in the King’s Maudsley Partnership join me in congratulating the award winners and those nominated, and a shout out also to others at KMP who were nominated, the awardees showcase how King’s Maudsley Partnership strives to infuse research into clinical care, and will enrich our research through clinical insights and experience."
Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo, the Rising Star, has provided consistently highly impactful reviews of studies that centre on key clinical questions. His achievement is all the more impressive as he is very active in CAMHS, both working with families and developing care pathways. The RE-STAR team, led by Professor Sonuga-Barke, gain their award in part for placing neurodivergent young people at the core of all of stages of their research. In RE-STAR, experts by lived experience and experts by academic training have together provided rich insights into why depression is so often experienced by neurodivergent youth.
Professor Philip Shaw, Director of the King’s Maudsley Partnership and Head of Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, IoPPN
Alongside these wins, we’re delighted to recognise Dr. Josefien Breedvelt who was also nominated for the Rising Star award, and Mr Sangwoo Richard Jung, shortlisted for Clinical Trainee of the Year.
In this story
Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Postdoctoral Research Fellow & RE-STAR Programme Manager
Senior Clinical Lecturer
Director, King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People