David Nutt

David is Prof of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London He obtained an Open Scholarship in Medicine at Downing College Cambridge then completed his clinical training at Guy’s hospital London. He did his doctorate at the MRC Clinical Pharmacology Unit in Oxford subsequently becoming a University Lecturer and then a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in psychiatry. Then followed two years as head of the research ward at NIAAA in the USA before he set up the Psychopharmacology unit at Bristol University in 1988, where he later became Prof of Psychopharmacology and Dean of Clinical Medicine before moving to Imperial College London in 2008. He has held presidencies of the EBC, BAP, BNA and ECNP, was chair of the ACMD and founded the charity DrugScience and now chairs PAREA the European association for access to research with psychedelics.

David’s contributions to pharmacology include GABA and noradrenaline receptor function in anxiety disorders, serotonin function in depression, endorphin and dopamine function in addiction and most recently the neuroscience and clinical utility of psychedelics.  He has over 600 original research papers, a similar number of reviews/book chapters, eight government reports and 40 books. In 2013 he was awarded the John Maddox Prize from Nature/Sense about Science for standing up for science and in 2017 a Doctor of Laws hon causa from the University of Bath.