23 November 2011 - University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford
Professor David Nutt DM, FRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci, will deliver the Ninth Annual Monica Fooks Memorial Lecture entitled "How can we get the media to tell the truth about drugs?" on Wednesday, 23 November 2011.
The venue is the University Museum of Natural History on Parks Road, Oxford.
The lecture will start at 5.00 p.m. and will be followed by refreshments.
All are welcome - no booking needed. For further information please contact [log in to unmask]
The lecture was established in 2002 at Somerville College, in memory of Monica, the daughter and sister, respectively, of Jean and Carolyn Fooks, who were both students at Somerville. Monica studied at Edinburgh University and developed bipolar disorder, which led to her taking her own life in September 1994 at the age of 26.
Monica's parents, Geoffrey and Jean Fooks, gave Somerville the funds to set up the lectureship, with the specific aim of improving public awareness of mental illness and to encourage medical students to take more interest in bipolar disorder, in particular.
Dame Fiona Caldicott, former Principal of Somerville and a previous President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (the first woman to hold that office), suggested the lecture as a way to achieve better public understanding and stimulate research into the illness.
Previous speakers have included; Professor Keith Hawton, Director of the Centre for Suicide Research in Oxford, Professor Kay Redfield Jameson, acknowledged as the world expert on the illness, Dr Mike Shooter, former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Professor John Geddes, Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry and Professor David Miklowitz, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Colorado.
Professor Nutt is currently the Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Division of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London.
He received his undergraduate training in medicine at Cambridge and Guy's Hospital, and continued training in neurology to MRCP. After completing his psychiatric training in Oxford, he continued there as a lecturer and then later as a Wellcome Senior Fellow in psychiatry. He then spent two years as Chief of the Section of Clinical Science in the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in NIH, Bethesda, USA. On returning to England in 1988 he set up the Psychopharmacology Unit in Bristol University, an interdisciplinary research grouping spanning the departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology before moving to Imperial College London in December 2008 where he leads a similar group with a particular focus on brain imaging especially PET.
He is currently Chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) and President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), a council member of the European Brain Council, President-elect of the British Neuroscience Association, the UK Director of the European Certificate and Masters in Affective Disorders Courses and a member of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy. In addition, he has edited the Journal of Psychopharmacology for over a decade and acts as the psychiatry advisor to the British National Formulary. He has published over 400 original research papers, a similar number of reviews and books chapters, eight government reports on drugs and 26 books.
Previously he has been member and Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD - 1998-2009), President of the British Association of Psychopharmacology (BAP), member of the HEFCE/NHS Senior Lecturer Selection Panel and member of the MRC Neuroscience Board. Other previous national contributions include membership of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act (2000 Runciman report), and membership of the Committee on Safety of Medicines (2000 - 2005) and member of the Ministry of Defence Science Advisory Board (2005-2007). He was the clinical scientific lead on the 2004/5 UK Government Foresight initiative "Brain science, addiction and drugs" that provided a 25-year vision for this area of science and public policy and in 2006 he was Director of Bristol Neuroscience.
He broadcasts widely to the general public both on radio and television including recent BBC Horizon on drug harms and their classification. He also lecturers widely to the public as well as to the scientific and medical communities; for instance has presented three time at the Cheltenham Science Festival and several times for Café Scientifiques. In 2010 he was listed as one of the 100 most important figures in British Science by The Times Eureka science magazine.
Pete
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Pete Quinn
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