The International Biomedical Research Alliance Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes achievements of an exceptional nature in scientific and medical inquiry, professional practice, and enhancing the lives of others both personally and professionally. This Award is not given in recognition of a single remarkable achievement but is reserved for an NIH-OxCam alumnus who has attained and maintained extraordinary impact throughout their career in their chosen fields of endeavor and in their service to society at large. The ceremony to honor the 2023 winner was held during the NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Colloquium Gala Dinner at Homerton College, at the University of Cambridge.
Prof. Jonathan Roiser is an NIH OxCam Alumni from the Class of 2003, under the joint mentorship of Prof. Barbara Sahakian (who was one of the signatories of the original doctoral program agreement between NIH and Cambridge, along with Dr. Michael Lenardo…please see archived photo below!) at the University of Cambridge, and Dr. Wayne Drevets, who was then Chief of the NIMH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program. Jonathan was the first Scholar to graduate from the University of Cambridge arm of the Program in 2005, having joined OxCam as an Advanced Scholar part-way through his PhD, which was funded by the UK Medical Research Council. Roiser, Sahakian, and Drevets planned a highly complex psychopharmacological neuroimaging experiment to understand how serotonin modulates the brain’s processing of emotion in depression.
After graduation, Jonathan returned to London in 2005 for a post-doctoral position at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London (UCL) where he was mentored by some of the world’s leading experts in neuroimaging. Impressively, after only two years, he obtained a faculty position at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, where he founded the Neuroscience and Mental Health group which he continues to direct today.
In 2013, Jonathan became the youngest ever Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator with a £1 million grant, allowing him to undertake an extensive research program focusing on motivational dysfunction in depression and novel treatments. He has become a pioneer and international leader in the biological psychiatry field, especially in the burgeoning area of computational psychiatry. He served as Section Editor at Neuroimage: Clinical for five years, before accepting a Reviewing Editor appointment at eLife in 2020 where he became a Senior Editor within a year. Jonathan has been a strong proponent of eLife’s advocacy for preprint publishing and broader attempts to reform the scientific review process.
In recognition of his achievements, Jonathan was promoted to full Professor in 2015–just one decade after graduating from the NIH OxCam Program. In 2019 he became Deputy Director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. He has received many distinguished honors and his work has been cited over 17,000 times, giving him an exceptional h-index of 70.
In addition to his profound influence on neuroscience and mental health research, Jonathan has made truly unique contributions to research training. Inspired by his own experience in the NIH OxCam Program, in 2009 he founded and continues to direct the UCL-NIMH Joint Doctoral Program in Neuroscience. Most notably, in 2019 he was awarded a £5.7 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to establish a new interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Mental Health Science. Jonathan is also committed to science communication and public engagement, involvement of people with lived experience in the research process, open science, and translation of science for societal benefit, clearly demonstrating impact outside his immediate network.
His nominator, NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program co-founder, Dr. Michael Lenardo, remarked “In summary, Jonathan’s leadership and recognition in the field of neuroscience and mental health research is truly remarkable, with tremendous impact both scientifically and societally. He has already built an impressive legacy through his deep and enduring commitment to research training at this stage in his career. It is hard to imagine that there is a more suitable recipient for the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award, and I am delighted to nominate him with the greatest of enthusiasm.”
On learning of his Award, Jonathan commented “I could not be more thrilled to be recognized through this prestigious award. The NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program was absolutely foundational to my career, allowing me to broaden my scientific horizons in ways that continue to impact my research today. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Michael Lenardo for my nomination, and deeply honored that the committee chose to select me.”
Congratulations Jonathan!