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.