Professor Steve C. R. Williams is Professor of Imaging Sciences at King’s College London and Head of the Department of Neuroimaging at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. He is also the founding Director of the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, a partnership between King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. His research focuses on developing and translating advanced brain-imaging technologies, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), into clinical and research tools for understanding neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Steve was the first PhD in Magnetic Resonance Imaging from the University of Cambridge and has been a leading figure in the development and application of functional and clinical neuroimaging. Over his career, he has collaborated with numerous academic and industry partners to pioneer imaging methods used to investigate brain structure and function in conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, autism, dementia and MND/ALS, publishing extensively in the field of neuroscience.

More recently, he has focused on making imaging quicker, quieter and more accessible serving as the Principal Investigator of the UNITY (Ultra-Low-Field Neuroimaging in the Young) programme, a global initiative funded by the Gates Foundation. The project involves the development of portable low-field MRI scanners and deployment across more than 40 countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Initial studies have focused on early brain development in infants and young children and to expand access to neuroimaging in low-resource settings. Through UNITY and related collaborations, Steve has established an international network of imaging sites to better understand how environmental, nutritional and health factors influence early neurodevelopment and long-term brain health.

Please see his Research Staff Profile for more detail.

Key publications:

• Martins et al., 2026. Multimodal imaging suggests potential immune-vascular contributions to altered regional brain perfusion and oxygen metabolism in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
• Ringshaw et al., 2026. Feasibility and Validity of Ultra-Low-Field MRI for Measurement of Regional Infant Brain Volumes in Structures Associated With Antenatal Maternal Anemia. Human Brain Mapping.
• Giacomel et al., 2026. Transcriptome-informed brain cartography of polygenic risk and association with brain structure in major psychiatric disorders. Molecular Psychiatry.
• Ljungberg et al., 2025. Characterization of Portable Ultra-Low Field MRI Scanners for Multi-Center Structural Neuroimaging. Human Brain Mapping.
• Abate et al., 2024. UNITY: A low-field magnetic resonance neuroimaging initiative to characterize neurodevelopment in low and middle-income settings. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.