Rate My Professor Richard Emsley

Richard Emsley holds a joint appointment as Academic Director of the King’s Clinical Trials Unit and Professor of Medical Statistics and Trials Methodology in the Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. He earned a BSc in Mathematics in 2003 and a PhD in Biostatistics in 2007 from the University of Manchester, supervised by Professors Graham Dunn and Andrew Pickles. After his doctorate, he served as a Research Associate in Manchester’s Centre for Biostatistics, funded by an MRC Career Development Award in Biostatistics and an MRC Early Career Centenary Award. He progressed to Lecturer in 2012, Senior Lecturer in 2015, and Professor of Medical Statistics in 2016, while acting as Deputy Director of the Manchester Clinical Trials Unit. Emsley joined King’s College London in January 2018.

In addition to his professorial role, Emsley is Theme Lead for Trials, Genomics and Prediction at the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, Director of the NIHR Research Support Service Hub with a focus on Mental Health and Neuroscience studies, and Director of the Innovative Trials Hub under the Office for Life Sciences Mental Health Goals Programme. He held an NIHR Research Professorship from 2019 to 2025 and was appointed an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2026. His research focuses on clinical trials methodology, including statistical methods for efficacy and mechanism evaluation via causal inference, efficient adaptive and personalised trial designs, and precision medicine applications, particularly in mental health randomised trials of complex interventions. Emsley is an investigator and co-lead of the Statistical Analysis Working Group for the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership, founder of the European Causal Inference Meeting (Euro-CIM), Associate Editor for the journal Clinical Trials, member of the NIHR EME funding committee, and Chair of the Scientific Committee for the International Clinical Trials Methodology Conference 2026. Notable publications include “Effectiveness of an unguided modular online intervention for highly anxious parents...” (The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, 2024), “Safety and efficacy of autologous haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation... in refractory Crohn's disease (ASTIClite)” (The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 2024), “Efficacy of a culturally adapted, cognitive behavioural therapy-based intervention for postnatal depression... (ROSHNI-2)” (The Lancet, 2024), and others in BJPsych Bulletin (2026).