Professor Sukhi Shergill

About

Sukhi Shergill is Professor of Psychiatry at KMMS and Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Research at the Kent wide NHS trust (KMPT) since October 2021. He is also Professor of Psychiatry and Systems Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London (IoPPN-KCL). He trained in medicine at University College London (UCL), completing a BSc in Psychology before starting his psychiatry training at UCL and completing his higher training at the Maudsley Hospital London. He obtained his PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry KCL and was the recipient of several research fellowships before promotion to Professor in 2014. He heads the Cognition, Schizophrenia and Imaging Laboratory (CSI-Lab), comprising two-dozen academics, clinical researchers, PhD and other students. He was the founding director of the King’s centre for innovative therapies developing novel therapeutic approaches to mental health between industry and academics/clinicians within KCL. He led the MSc programmes in Mental Health Studies and Organisational Psychiatry and Psychology at KCL for a decade. He has been the recipient of several research and teaching awards; has had extensive grant funding from a range of governmental and charitable sources; published over 250 peer reviewed research publications and supervised more than 20 PhD students.

Research interests

Professor Shergill's research primarily uses neuroimaging techniques to explore functions and structures of the brain. He founded and leads the CSI Lab, virtual home to researchers and clinicians from around the world www.csilab.org where the aim is to use the results of this research to help develop new and effective treatments and to improve services, and the organisations that deliver them. The CSI Lab initially concentrated on investigating the brain mechanisms involved in the symptoms of schizophrenia – both the ‘positive symptoms’ (unusual experiences such as hallucinations and paranoia) that are characteristic of episodes of psychosis and the ongoing cognitive and ‘negative’ symptoms that affect memory and attention, making it difficult for people to interact socially and sustain relationships. We are now applying the expertise and knowledge gained to research disordered cognitive processes in other psychiatric illnesses, and are interested in understanding the cognitive processes and neural networks involved in all mental health problems.
Professor Shergill has over 250 peer-reviewed publications and these can be accessed via the research outputs option in https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/sukhi.shergill.html

He leads, and collaborates on, commercial clinical trials testing the effectiveness of new medication. he has worked with Boehringer Ingelheim, EnVivo, Takeda Global R&D Centre (Europe) Ltd, Forum Pharmaceuticals, Abbvie, Takeda, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline. Sukhi also works with a number of small private sector organisations developing non-pharmaceutical therapies.

He was the recipient of award for the Psychiatric Academic Researcher of the Year, Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2015; having previously been the recipient of the Association of European Psychiatrists Research Prize and Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Prize and Bronze Medal.

Teaching

Professor Shergill has led the MSc programmes in Mental Health Studies and Organisational Psychiatry and Psychology at KCL for a decade. He developed and led the advanced psychosis module of the MSc in the distant learning programme in the Neuroscience of mental health at the Kings College London Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (KCL-IoPPN). He has been the recipient of several teaching awards including the Maudsley medical student teaching award, KCL Innovative teacher of the year award, and KCL-IoPPN supervisory excellence award. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He has been interested in developing clinical placements for students and using technology to allow students to practice their clinical skills in mental health.

Supervision

Sukhi Shergill heads the Cognition, Schizophrenia and Imaging Laboratory (CSI Lab), comprising two-dozen academics, clinical researchers, PhD and other students.
He is currently primary supervisor for four PhD students and supports a further two students. To date, he has completed supervision of more than 20 PhD students across a range of clinical and research areas – current research topics are available on the CSI Lab website (http://www.csilab.org/) and he is open to new students. He was the winner of the 2018/9 Supervisory Excellence Award for the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, Centre for Doctoral Studies, King’s College London, 2019 and the Innovative Teacher of the Year Award, King's College London, 2009.

Professional

Current roles
. Member of the Wellcome Trust Career Development Awards Interview Committee, 2022 onwards.
. Member of the Medical Research Foundation Review Panel for Launchpad Grants in Mental Health, 2022 onwards.
. Member of the Grants Screening Committee of the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance (since 2019). This joint initiative from the Wellcome Trust and Government of India's . Department of Biotechnology provides competitive fellowships that aim to ‘build excellence in the Indian biomedical scientific community and support future leaders in
the field’.
. Collaborator, Clinical Research Center for Neuromodulation in Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, India (since 2021). The Center is
funded by the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance
. Examiner and supervisor for the General Medical Council, England (since 2008), working with doctors who have mental health problems.
. Member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Psychiatry (since 2004). I was part of the team responsible for the 2013 redesign of the publication.

Previous Roles
. Member, Wellcome Trust Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health Expert Review Group, 2018-2021.
. Member, Novel Therapeutics Cluster Board, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at SLaM and the IoPPN, 2018-2020.
. Member, Executive Board, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at SLaM and the IoPPN, 2017-2020.
. Member of the Strategic Board, King’s Health Partners Clinical Trials Office, 2016-2020.
. Member of the Executive Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Faculty of Academic Psychiatry, 2011-2020.
. Member of the Clinical and Public Health Selection Committee of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, 2013-2019.

From 2016-2019, he was founding director of the Centre for CNS Therapeutics (now the Centre for Innovative Therapies), set up by the IoPPN and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London (Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre). He was responsible for creating and helping to maintain collaborative relationships with private sector organisations working in the field of healthcare.

Public Engagement

Spokesperson for the Better Health – Every Mind Matters campaign from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), supported by a coalition of mental health charities and launched 1 October 2021. www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters.

Member of the Health Steering Group for Design in
an Age of Crisis, London Design Biennale, Somerset House, June 2021.

Collaborator with artist Stephen Rudder on Black Men’s Minds, an immersive audio-visual installation exploring the experiences of black men and mental health at Black Cultural Archives, Brixton, November 2020.

Participant in Robyn Smith: The artist as patient and researcher/a conversation with…Professor Sukhi Shergill, 2019, The National Centre for Craft & Design, UK.

Joint author (with R Twumasi) of Problem gambling: why do some people become addicted?, a BBC news article, January 2020

Collaborator on Switching Perceptions, an exhibition and series of events at the Barbican Centre and Bethlem Gallery, created by artist Eleanor Minney and neuroscientist Liz Tunbridge in collaboration with patients from the National Psychosis Unit, 2019-2020. The project explores different perspectives on understanding the mind and mental illness, was funded by the Royal Society and includes The Think Tank, a conceptual space created on the National Psychosis Unit to enable contributions.

Collaborator on Talking Heads with artist Mel Brimfield, 2017-2018. Supported by the Cultural Institute at King’s College London, the project explores the symptoms of auditory hallucinations through drawings and a series of binaural audio monologue artworks. The work was based on conversations and encounters with patients on the National Psychosis Unit. Talking Heads was featured in a week-long Arts in Mind Festival at the IoPPN in June 2018 and presented in Leicester in 2019.

Collaborator on artwork for the Dharavi Biennial, with David Osrin, professor of global health at UCL, providing fMRI scans as the inspiration for artists living in Dharavi, the largest informal settlement in Mumbai. The artwork was displayed in the Dharavi Biennial, a festival organised by the Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action, 2015.

Participant in Schizophrenia: what’s in my head? –
a Nature Video with artist Sue Morgan who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia and created the front-page illustration for a Nature supplement about schizophrenia, April 2014.

Collaborator on Visitations, an opera about auditory hallucinations, with composer Jonathon Berger, Stanford University, 2013.

Collaboration with British artist Simon Grennan via the Royal Society of Art’s Creative Intersections project, part of King’s Cultural Institute’s Creative Futures Programme, 2012.

Participant in Metamorphoses; Transformation and Conversion, King’s College London School of Arts and Humanities Festival, 2012.

Member of advisory panel, and contributor to, mentalhealthcare.org.uk, a ‘plain English’ website about psychosis for caregivers, 2011-2013.

Instigator of the Bethlem Tapestry project, 2009-2010. The 10-metre-long woven tapestry depicts the experiences and thoughts of patients, staff, volunteers and carers on the National Psychosis Service ward. Local artist and former patient Mark McGowan led its creation and the Tapestry is now on permanent display on the ward.