Biographical note

Dr David Semple was born and educated in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, studying Medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1987-1992. He trained in Psychiatry in the Borders/South East Scotland during which time he conducted research funded by Wellcome into the long-term effects of ecstasy. During his time as a Lecturer/Specialist Registrar based at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital/University of Edinburgh he wrote the first edition of the Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry with a group of friends including close collaborator Dr Roger Smyth. Dr Semple was appointed to his current post as a Consultant General Adult Psychiatrist at Hairmyres Hospital in 2004. Dr Roger Smyth was born and educated in Belfast, Northern Ireland and came to Scotland to study Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He trained in Psychiatry in South East Scotland. Together with a group of friends and colleagues he wrote the first edition of the Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry. Dr Smyth took up his first Consultant Psychiatrist post in St John's Hospital, Livingston in 2004, and moved to the Department of Psychological Medicine. Dr Hadi Manji completed his undergraduate training in medicine at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and the Middlesex Hospital. He initially trained as a General Practitioner in Edinburgh and changed to neurology subsequently working at the National Hospital and L'Hopital Kremlin-Bicetre, Paris. In 1996 he completed his MD dissertation on 'Neurological Complications of HIV Infection'. He was appointed consultant in 1997. Apart from general neurology, Dr Manji has specialist interests in peripheral nerve disorders and neuroinfectious disorders including HIV and tropical neurology. He has taught and lectured on various neurological topics in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Kenya and Dubai. He is currently involved in teaching and helping to set up the undergraduate neurology curriculum at the Roman Catholic medical school in Beira, Mozambique. Dr Christian Lambert is currenltly an ST4 Clinical Lecturer in Neurology at St George's University of London. He does active research into computational neuroanatomy, with a focus on the brainstem and basal ganglia, and works on translational applications in functional neurosurgery and neurodegenerative conditions. He has a clinical interest in movement and cognitive disorders. Dr Sean Connolly is a senior clinical lecturer in the School of Medicine, UCD and is a Consultant in Clinical Neurophysiology based in St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin. He graduated from the National University of Ireland before undertaking a research fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology in Middlesex Hospital, London. He also worked in Massachusetts General Hospital, where he did a Fellowship in both Epileptology and Clinical Neurophysiology. Neil Kitchen is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. His special intetests include brain tumour surgery, intracranial microsurgery, trigeminal neuralgia, cavernoma and radiosurgery.