Lifetime achievement award for Tom McMillan

Published: 27 February 2017

Professor Tom McMillan of the Institute of Health and Wellbeing has been recognised with a lifetime achievement award from the British Psychological Society.

Image of Professor Tom McMillan, Institute of Health and WellbeingProfessor Tom McMillan of the Institute of Health and Wellbeing has been recognised with a lifetime achievement award from the British Psychological Society.

The awards are presented annually to recognise and celebrate unusually significant and sustained contributions over a career as a practitioner of applied psychology.

Unusually for 2017 there were two outstanding candidates, the other being Narinder Kapur visiting Professor of Neuropsychology at University College London and honorary consultant neuropsychologist at Imperial College NHS Trust.

Evidence-based interventions

Tom McMillan is Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Glasgow, as well as working two days a week as the consultant adviser for brain injury rehabilitation for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. He was the first Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology in the UK and was the founder of what is now the Society’s Division of Neuropsychology (DoN).

Over a 35-year career Tom McMillan has engaged in clinical and research work in head injury and neurorehabilitation and has almost 200 publications. He received lifetime achievement awards from DoN in 2014 and from the International Neuropsychology Society in 2016. He has particular interests in the interplay between brain injury, psychological consequences and lifestyle in determining late outcome and in the development of evidence-based interventions.

Professor McMillan said: ”Working with people with brain injury and their families over the past four decades has been a tremendous privilege.”

"Outstanding example"

Professor Peter Kinderman, President of the British Psychological Society, said: "The human brain has been described is the most complex object in the known universe. To make matters more complicated still, of course, the human brain does not work in isolation. Our brains and our minds, our relationships, our communities, and our experiences over the span of our lives all interact in the most fantastically complicated but vitally important dance.

"Professors McMillan and Kapur are two outstanding neuropsychologists, who have managed to shed light on the workings of the human brain, how we identify assess and intervene when people have neurological problems, and how our brains and our experiences interact. I am absolutely delighted that professors McMillan and Kapur are joint recipients of this prestigious award. They are outstanding examples of the contribution psychologists can make to health care and to society, and I am proud that they are leading members of my profession."

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First published: 27 February 2017