Rate My Professor Peter Schofield

Conjoint Professor Peter Schofield serves in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned his Doctor of Medicine, Bachelor of Science with Honours, and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Monash University, along with a Master of Science in Epidemiology from Columbia University, New York, USA. Schofield trained in Neurology and Geriatrics in Australia, obtaining Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP), and subsequently specialized in Behavioural Neurology and Epidemiology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre and Columbia University. His early research in the USA addressed epidemiological aspects of dementing disorders. Returning to Australia in 1997, he was appointed Clinical Director of the Neuropsychiatry Service at Hunter New England Health from January 1998 to the present, developing the service for the greater Newcastle area and northern NSW, and directing a team of over 30 individuals.

Schofield's research focuses on epidemiological studies of aging, dementia, traumatic brain injury, solvent exposure, and neuropsychiatric issues in offender populations, including impulsivity. He developed the Audio Recorded Cognitive Screen (ARCS), a novel, flexible instrument for detecting cognitive impairment in clinical and research settings. Recent efforts explore olfaction as a biomarker for early Alzheimer's disease. Key publications include 'Sertraline to reduce recidivism in impulsive violent offenders (ReINVEST): a randomised double blind clinical trial' (2025), 'Women’s experiences of changes in related men’s impulsivity and domestic violence following men’s participation in the ReINVEST clinical trial' (2025), 'Cognitive performance and lifetime occupational exposures in a regional Australian population: a distributed lag mixtures approach' (2026), 'Does Traumatic Brain Injury Lead to Criminality? A Whole-Population Retrospective Cohort Study Using Linked Data' (2015), 'The Audio Recorded Cognitive Screen (ARCS): a flexible and versatile instrument for clinic or research' (2013), and the chapter 'The influence of head injury on olfactory and gustatory function' (2019). He collaborates with Professor John Attia on longitudinal aging studies including the Hunter Community Study, Professor Tony Butler of the Kirby Institute on offender populations, and Associate Professor Jeannette Lechner-Scott on ARCS applications in multiple sclerosis. Schofield teaches at undergraduate, postgraduate, and masterclass levels and has served on the Pfizer Neuroscience Research Grant Selection Committee.