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On Wednesday 8 July 2026 the University of Oxford's Department of Psychiatry will showcase our world-leading research that could transform the way mental illness is diagnosed and treated. This all-day event will highlight the latest ground-breaking science and highlight emerging areas of research to deal with a changing world.  

Professor Steve E. Hyman (Harvard University) and Dr Lade Smith CBE (King’s College London) are confirmed as keynote speakers. There will also be several ‘Dragons’ Den’-style pitch sessions, where researchers will present how their work will positively impact patients in the years ahead to a panel of experts.  

The event will also mark 200 years of the Warneford Hospital, where the Department is based. It is also inspired by a one-day conference in Oxford, held in 1952, entitled ‘Prospects in Psychiatric Research’, which discussed what psychiatry would be like in 50 years’ time. This 2026 version will explore what the future may hold for psychiatry in terms of diagnoses, treatments and clinical practice. 

The event takes place at the Mathematical Institute, Andrew Wiles Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6GG and online. 

Agenda*

*Subject to change

Keynote Speakers

Steven E. Hyman, MD

Steven E Hyman is Harald McPike Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and a Core Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where he directs the Broad Program in Brain Health. He is principal investigator of the Psychiatric Biomarkers Network (PBN). This is a multisite academic-industry consortium to discover fluid biomarkers for schizophrenia-bipolar (psychosis) spectrum disorders and establish a repository for sharing of samples and data. 

From 2012-2024 Hyman directed the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute. From 2001 to 2011 he served as Harvard University Provost (the chief academic office). From 1996 to 2001 he was Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) where he modernized its research portfolio, emphasizing neuroscience, emerging genomic technologies, and initiating a series of large pragmatic clinical trials to inform practice. He has served as Editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience (2002-2016) and chair of the International Advisory Committee for the revision of the chapter on Mental, Behavioral, or Neurodevelopmental Disorders of the International Classification of Diseases, 11^th edition, (ICD-11) for the World Health Organization (2006-2014). He was founding President of the International Neuroethics Society (2008-2013), President of the Society for Neuroscience (2015), and President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2018).  He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.  He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) where he chaired the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders (2012-2018), served on the NAM governing Council (2012-2018), and on the governing board of the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2016-2019).  He currently chairs the Boards of Directors of the Charles A. Dana Foundation (NY) and the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering (Geneva, Switzerland). In the private sector he is a Director of Voyager Therapeutics, Cyclerion Therapeutics, and Vesalius Therapeutics, and is a founder of Emugen Therapeutics.  He serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of J&J Innovative Medicines and F-Prime Capital. He received his BA, summa cum laude, from Yale, an MA from the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a Mellon fellow studying History and Philosophy of Science, and an MD, cum laude, from Harvard Medical School.

Dr Lade Smith CBE

Dr Shubulade (Lade) Smith CBE is the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Lade is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London. 

Lade graduated in Medicine from Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London, where she won prizes in Psychological Medicine. After training in psychiatry at the Maudsley, she undertook a Research Fellowship in antipsychotic side effects, supervised by Professor Sir Robin Murray.  She subsequently set up a joint medication review/physical health clinic, a “one stop shop” aimed at health promotion and management of physical problems in people with SMI, for which she was nominated a BMA Pioneer for innovation in psychiatry. Having trained in General Psychiatry and worked in Forensic Psychiatry, she is now the Lead for the Acute Forensic Pathway of the South London Partnership and Clinical Director of the Forensic Services at SLaM.

In 2019, Lade was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Forensic Intensive Psychiatric care and was awarded Psychiatrist of the Year by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Lade was co-organiser of the RCPsych International Congress from 2019–23 – this has gone from strength to strength and now attracts 3000 delegates from all over the world.

Lade is the former Clinical and Strategic Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, providing medical leadership for the team developing mental health policy and guidelines. 

Lade has specialist expertise in mental health inequality and sat on the core working group of the Independent Mental Health Act Review, chaired by Professor Sir Simon Wessely. She was responsible for some of the key recommendations, including recommendations aimed at improving outcomes for Black people with mental health problems, which have now been taken up by the government. Between 2020–23, she was joint Presidential Lead for Race and Equality at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Last year, she featured in HSJ’s list of 100 influential “Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic” leaders. 

Lade is a Trustee of National Mind. She is also a Trustee of the Bethlem Art Gallery.