Professor David Wilkinson of the University's School of Psychology will present his research when he delivers his inaugural professorial lecture on Friday, 24 November.
Professor Wilkinson will showcase the results of clinical trials on his pioneering work developing more effective treatments for a range of conditions and illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease, migraine and the effects of strokes.
He will tell the audience that over the coming decades the UK population will face complex health challenges associated with an ageing population, sedentary lifestyles, resource depletion, climate change and persistent social inequalities.
These challenges add to longstanding problems associated with the failure to adequately treat many brain diseases, and to address the mental health difficulties endured by members of armed forces returning from military conflicts around the world, he will say.
His research has seen collaboration with local NHS services involved in neuro-rehabilitation, neurology and psychiatry, national centres of excellence including the National Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence at King’s College London, the National Migraine Centre, and in the USA the Translational Centre for Traumatic Brain Injury and Stress Disorders at Harvard Medical School.
The lecture, which runs from 18.00-19.00 in Keynes Lecture Theatre 4, is free and open to all but places are now very limited. Anyone wishing to attend is asked to email George Oatridge .