Prof Martyn Pickersgill

Professor Martyn Pickersgill’s research focuses on the social, historical, and ethical aspects and implications of neuroscience and mental health. A social scientist, Martyn specialises in the use of qualitative methods for understanding the relationships between scientific research, clinical practice, and wider society.

Martyn has degrees in biology and sociology, and first came to Edinburgh in 2009 following his doctoral research at the University of Nottingham (a period in which he also trained at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University). He has subsequently held a variety of grants and fellowships, from bodies such as the AHRC, ESRC, British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Wellcome Trust. Martyn is Co-Director of the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society and Co-Director of the Wellcome PhD Programme in ‘One Health Models of Disease: Science, Ethics, and Society’. He is a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council and the Strategic Advisory Network for the UK Economic and Social Research Council. Martyn is an elected Fellow of the UK Academic of Social Sciences, and a recipient of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Henry Duncan Medal.