Huge wins for South London and Maudsley and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at the RCPsych Awards 2025
Teams and individuals from across South London and Maudsley and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) have won many of the top prizes at this year’s RCPsych Awards 2025, with many more shortlisted.
The RCPsych Awards annually celebrate national excellence across the field of psychiatry, and we are so proud to see our staff members and alumni recognised for their dedication, innovations and impact.
Professor Sir Robin Murray was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award recognising his decades of hard work and dedication.
Professor Derek Tracy, Chief Medical Officer at South London and Maudsley said: “We’re so proud of our joint achievements from this year’s RCPsych Awards. Our partnership with the IoPPN is unique and part of what makes our so work distinctive and special. Many of our colleagues move fluidly between the two to bring depth, agility, innovation and a shared vision to transform care for those affected by mental health and neurological conditions. Huge congratulations to all those short-listed, and those who won, though I must emphasise the enormous achievement of Dr Emily Finch in winning the hugely prestigious ‘Psychiatrist of the Year’ award in the light of what the RCPsych noted was ‘huge competition’ this year. Finally, like so many others, I can only add my admiration and respect to Professor Murray’s incredibly well-deserved lifetime award”.
Professor Matthew Hotopf, Executive Dean at the IoPPN said: “The range of awards from the Royal College of Psychiatrists is a real testament to the outstanding work happening across the IoPPN and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. The collaboration between our two organisations is key to the successes for our academics, clinicians, students, staff and most importantly for those we work with both in the hospital and the community. We are incredibly proud of all those who received nominations and awards.”
Professor Sir Robin Murray wins 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor Sir Robin Murray, a key figure across both our organisations, won this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for this work on challenging the views around understanding schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder fuelled by insults to the brain in early life.
Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Professor at the IoPPN, King’s College London, and a Consultant Psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley, shared his support of Robin, calling him “probably the most influential, respected and also liked psychiatrist of the modern era”
He also said: “Robin will be best known for his work on severe mental illness. He developed the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia, and then spent decades challenging his own work, as great scientists do.
“Despite all his efforts to disprove it, there’s no doubt that it has stood the test of time. He was at the forefront of work on the genetics of the disorder, particularly using twin studies, and there is no doubt that genes play a major role, even if the more we know, understanding how they interplay gets more and not less complex.
“In later years he has made increasing contributions to establishing the role of environmental factors, such as poverty, urbanicity and cannabis as well as our genetic inheritance – the last mentioned has major implications for drug policy, although whether we will listen remains to be seen.
Below we have shared what the judges said about our other winners.
Our winning individuals
Higher Resident Doctor of the Year - Dr Asilay Seker
The judges said: “Asilay is a well-rounded outstanding higher trainee. She excels clinically, as a leader, an educator and a researcher who gives opportunity for her fellow colleagues to excel including founding the International Journal of Psychiatric Trainees.”
Medical student of the year - An Nakamura
The judges said: “An is an outstanding student who brings a unique perspective to psychiatry as a researcher, musician, educator, leader and entrepreneur. Her ability to promote healthcare innovation effectively to the public through Gaming the Mind and Rain and Shine is very impressive.”
Psychiatrist of the Year - Dr Emily Finch
The judges said: “Emily is a compassionate and highly respected leader in psychiatry, admired for her advocacy for the most vulnerable and stigmatised people in society, her national contributions to addiction policy and training, and her dedication as a clinician, colleague, and mento are remarkable.
“Dr Finch's nomination stood out from the rest, with her multi-faceted contributions in the often-neglected field of addiction psychiatry, advocating tirelessly for high quality care and combatting stigma that people face.”
Our winning teams
Psychiatric Team of the Year: Children and Adolescents - Autism and Intellectual Disability Intensive Intervention Team
The judges said: “The judges were impressed with the team’s demonstration of quality improvement and effective use of resources.”
Psychiatric Team of the Year: Research/Quality Improvement - Maudsley Advanced Treatment Service
The judges said: “The judges were impressed by the way the team involved and engaged key stakeholders, particularly patients and carers, in the work of the Centre, in identifying the research questions of importance and quality improvement problems to tackle, and in the high-quality scientific outputs enabling the sharing and embedding of evidence-based practice.
“This work has the potential to improve management of complex mood disorders beyond South London and help other trusts look to embed some of these innovations to improve and develop clinical care.”
Our shortlisted teams and individuals
And a final huge well done to all our teams and individuals who were shortlisted:
- Core Psychiatric Trainee of the Year | Dr Laura Convertino
- Higher Psychiatric Resident Doctor of the Year | Dr Mutahira Qureshi
- Mid/Senior Career Academic Researcher of the Year | Dr Tom Pollak
- Psychiatric Team of the Year: Digital Mental Health |The Clinical Informatics Service
- Psychiatric Team of the Year: Research/Quality Improvement | The Brain Health Clinic
We recently spoke to the Brain Health Clinic about the work they do to support our older adults with mild cognitive impairment and early signs of dementia. Read more: Brain Health Clinic: Supporting our aging population with personalised interventions
A huge congratulation to all the winners and shortlisted individuals. The full list of winners can be found here: RCPsych Awards 2025 winners
