Richard Emsley is a NIHR Research Professor and Professor of Medical Statistics and Trials Methodology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, and Theme Lead for Trials, Genomics and Prediction at the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. He is also Interim Academic Director of the King’s Clinical Trials Unit and heading up one of the new eight NIHR Research Services Support (RSS) hubs delivered by King's.

Before joining the IoPPN in January 2018, Richard held a personal Chair at The University of Manchester as Professor of Medical Statistics and was Deputy Director of the Manchester Clinical Trials Unit.

Richard studied at The University of Manchester for a BSc in Mathematics (2000-2003) and an MRC funded PhD studentship in Biostatistics (2003-2007) under the supervision of Prof Graham Dunn and Prof Andrew Pickles.  Following his PhD, he worked as a Research Associate in the Centre for Biostatistics, and was awarded personal fellowships as an MRC Career Development Award in Biostatistics (2009-2012) and an MRC Early Career Centenary Award (2012-2013), before being appointed as a Lecturer (2012), and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2015 and Professor in 2016.  During his fellowships, Richard spent several months as a visiting researcher at the Department of Epidemiology and Department of Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

Within the Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics, Richard leads the Clinical Trials Methodology research theme. He develops clinical trial designs which aim to answer questions about treatments more quickly and using fewer patients. 

Research interests

• Clinical trials methodology
• Developing statistical methods for efficacy
• Mechanisms evaluation using causal inference approaches

Teaching

For the MSc in Applied Statistical Modelling and Health Informatics and Biostatistics Executive Education programme, Richard teaches on the following courses:

• Multilevel and Longitudinal Modelling (module lead)
• Structural Equation Modelling with Stata
• Causal Modelling and Evaluation

Richard delivers lectures on clinical trials and intervention studies on the MSc in Global Health and the MSc in Psychiatric Research and contributes to the annual Epidemiology and Statistics for Mental Health Research course.

Expertise and public engagement

• Lead for the joint department and Maudsley BRC Methodology Patient and Public Involvement group
• Member of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Clinical Evaluation and Trials Committee and the NIHR Clinical Trials Unit Standing Advisory Committee
• On the Executive Committee of the NIHR Statistics Group
• Associate Editor of the journal Clinical Trials
• Investigator on the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership, and co-lead of its Statistical Analysis Working Group.
• Founder of the European Causal Inference Meeting (Euro-CIM)