Sir Simon Wessely is the Interim Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, where he is also the UK’s only Regius Chair of Psychiatry. Since 1991 he has been a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley and also King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts.

After medical training at Oxford he obtained the MRCP in Newcastle, before moving to London to train in psychiatry at the Maudsley. He is an active clinical academic psychiatrist and was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021. He is a Past President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2013-17) and the Royal Society of Medicine (2017-2020).

After a Master’s and Doctorate in epidemiology, he founded the King’s Centre for Military Health Research. He remains the Honorary Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the British Army, and works with several charities for Veterans. Sir Simon chaired the government’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act between 2017-19. He was the Director of the PHE NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for Emergency Preparedness and Response, which has been very active during the COVID-19 crisis, and continues to have a broad interest in how people and populations react to adversity and  occupational health and well being.