New Director of the UCL Institute of Neurology

Alan Thompson (UCL Institute of Neurology), Garfield Weston Professor of Clinical Neurology & Neurorehabilitation, has been appointed Director of the UCL Institute of Neurology with effect from 1 April 2008.

Professor Thompson is head of the institute's Research Department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, Deputy-Director of the Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre and the Joint UCLH/UCL R&D Unit, and is a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, where he was Clinical Director from 2003-2007. He is Chairman of the International Medical & Scientific Board for the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation and Editor-in-Chief of the journal 'Multiple Sclerosis'.

His research interests include the investigation of mechanisms that underlie disability in neurological conditions, particularly multiple sclerosis, the development of outcome measures which assess the impact of such conditions, and the improvement of symptomatic management and service delivery in multiple sclerosis.

Professor Ed Byrne, Dean of UCL Biomedical Sciences, Head of the UCL Medical School and UCL Vice-Provost (Health), said: "Professor Thompson's leadership will enable the institute to build on its already formidable reputation and contribution to health and wellbeing. I would also like to pay tribute to the outstanding contribution of the outgoing director, Professor Roger Lemon. He has directed the institute for almost six years, and under his excellent leadership its research and teaching programmes have flourished. The institute is now without question the strongest site for translational neuroscience in Europe and this is in significant part due to Professor Lemon's outstanding leadership."

To find out more about the institute use the link at the top of this article.

Image: Professor Thompson