Deputy Theme Leads

Ben is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham, and Consultant Psychiatrist in the Birmingham Early Intervention Services. Ben’s primary research interest is improving our understanding of, and ability to intervene in, the physical morbidity of major mental illnesses like schizophrenia and depression.

He has expertise in using cutting edge methods straddling observational and genetic epidemiology, risk prediction and the development of predictive algorithms, data science, and causal inference. Ben is also developing an interest in translating and expanding the observational research findings through applied and mixed methods research.

Ben’s interest in psychiatry began during his medical studies in East London. His experiences on clinical placements in particular widened his eyes to the poor physical health outcomes too often experienced by people with mental illness. After joining the academic clinical training program in Cardiff where he trained in psychiatric genetics, he moved to the University of Warwick as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow, training in epidemiology and biostatistics. Then, having been awarded a prestigious NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship, Ben moved to University of Cambridge to undertake his PhD. He was subsequently appointed Clinical Lecturer in Psychiatry at University of Cambridge and completed his clinical training in Cambridgeshire before moving to University of Birmingham.

Dr Luke Brown is an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology and a Principal Clinical Psychologist in the National Health Service (NHS). Both his clinical work and research interests are concentrated in the area of youth mental health; with a specific focus on supporting those recovering from psychosis and preventing the development of psychotic disorders in individuals at Ultra-High Risk (UHR).

Dr Luke Brown completed his PhD at the University of Warwick on the relationship between ethnicity and excessive rates of compulsory hospital admission during First Episode Psychosis (FEP). He later completed his clinical psychology training at the University of Birmingham and continues to work as a Clinical Psychologist in an Early Intervention In Psychosis Service, in the West Midlands, UK.

As an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology, he teaches on the clinical psychology training programme and leads an NHS England funded Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion project within the School of Psychology. He also leads the Pathfinder Mentoring Scheme for aspiring clinical psychologists regionally underrepresented within the workforce – About Pathfinder – University of Birmingham

Dr Isabel Morales-Muñoz is Assistant Professor in Psychology based at the Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. Her main area of research is to investigate risk factors for youth mental health, with a special focus on investigating the role of sleep problems in the development of mental health problems. Her current work is mainly focused on secondary data analyses (e.g. birth cohort studies, such as ALSPAC, Millennium cohort), but she has also expertise in using different scientific methods, including clinical assessments, neuropsychological testing and ERP assessments.

Dr Morales-Muñoz was born in Vitoria, Spain. She has a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, from the University of Deusto, Bilbao (Spain). In 2009 she completed her MSc in Cognitive Neuropsychology at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), and in 2012 her MSc in Psychopathology and Health at the National University of Distance Education (Spain). Her PhD was in the neuropsychological and neurophysiological bases of cognitive disorders in First Episode Psychosis, and was completed in 2014, at the Complutense University of Madrid.

After completing her PhD, she joined the University of Helsinki (Finland) as postdoctoral fellow, and subsequently in 2016, she joined the National Institute for Health and Welfare, in Helsinki, as postdoctoral fellow. In April 2018, she was awarded the Academy of Finland postdoctoral research fellow, to investigate sleep development in early childhood and the links between sleep and neurodevelopmental and mental health problems in children. In June 2022, she joined the School of Psychology as Assistant Professor, after spending 4 years as honorary research fellow at the Institute for Mental Health, at the University of Birmingham.