Belinda Lennox was appointed as the first female Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford in 2019 and is an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in the Early Intervention in Psychosis service for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
‘It is an enormous privilege and honour to have been appointed as Head of Department of Psychiatry. I have found the department to be a truly special place - a vibrant, friendly, welcoming community of brilliant research and support staff, all at the top of their fields, and with a track record of outstanding, world-leading research and teaching. The last 10 years under John Geddes leadership have been hugely successful with a doubling in our numbers of staff and establishing our leading position for research quality. There is such a desperate need for advances in the prevention and treatment of mental illness, and my aim is for Oxford Psychiatry to accelerate and lead the way in those advances.’
‘I believe the department has exciting times ahead with plans for the redevelopment of the Warneford Hospital site, which will enable even closer working with our University and NHS partners, with patients and carers at the centre of everything we do.’
After 10 years of service Professor John Geddes will step down as Head of the Department of Psychiatry in September 2021. Professor Geddes has led the department through enormous change and progression, having led a successful REF in 2014, secured the first NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre in 2016, cementing the strong partnership between the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Oxford. He has also overseen the department’s work to achieve the Silver Athena SWAN award first received in 2015 with successful renewal in 2018, and led the department's celebrations for its 50th Anniversary. Professor Geddes will continue at the department in his new role as the WA Handley Chair of Psychiatry.
Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, said:
‘I would like to take this opportunity to share the Medical Sciences Board’s thanks for John’s exceptional leadership of the Department of Psychiatry over many years.’
Professor John Geddes, current Head of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, said:
'It has been a huge honour to lead the department over the last decade. I have been fortunate to work with an incredible team of professionals. I am truly delighted to hand over the reins to Belinda. She is a great leader and clinical academic. I know that she will drive the department's outstanding research to ever greater heights and impact, delivering on our aim of transforming the lives of patients through advances in scientific knowledge.'
Background information:
Belinda trained in General Adult Psychiatry in Nottingham, Oxford and Cambridge, moving to Oxford in 2012, she was appointed as the first female Professor of Psychiatry in 2019. Her interests are in discovering the causes of and developing more effective treatments for those with psychosis and in implementing those discoveries into clinical practice. For the last 7 years she has been Clinical Director for the NIHR Clinical Research Network: Thames Valley and South Midlands which oversees the delivery of research in the NHS.