Staff news

Personal Chair: Walter John Muir

Professor Walter John Muir has been appointed Personal Chair in Developmental Psychiatry.

walter muir

Professor Muir is Reader in Psychiatry at the School of Molecular & Clinical Medicine.

He graduated BMedSci with first-class honours in Pharmacology, then MBChB and DSc, all from the University of Edinburgh.

He has spent his working career at Edinburgh.

During clinical training he was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship at the MRC Human Genetics Unit.

Following that, he took up a Senior Lectureship in the Division of Psychiatry in 1995 and a Readership in 2002.

His research has focussed on understanding the genetic basis for severe psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar and major depressive disorders.

Clinically, he is an honorary consultant specialising in the problems of people with learning disabilities.

His major interest is in trying to understand why such people have a very high risk of developing severe psychiatric disorders.

He is a trustee of the charity Autism Speaks (UK) and has been medical advisor to Down’s Syndrome Scotland for 15 years.

With his partner Patricia he enjoys theatre and film, and good food and wine.

His two children, Catherine and Alisdair, are both at university.