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Remembering Professor Lawrence Whalley

Remembering Professor Lawrence Whalley

Dear colleagues,

I am very sorry to share the sad news that Professor Lawrence Whalley passed away unexpectedly at the weekend.

Lawrence J. Whalley MB, BS, MD, DPM, FRCP(E), FRC Psych was Crombie Ross Professor and Honorary Consultant NHS Grampian UK from 1992 to 2008. Following his retirement, he remained Professor Emeritus at the University of Aberdeen and from 2010-2020 was a part-time professor of research at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Lawrence graduated in Medicine from the University of Newcastle in 1969 and was a postgraduate student in the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, and Newcastle upon Tyne.  He completed higher training in general and old age psychiatry in South East Scotland and forensic psychiatry in the State Hospital Carstairs (1974-77). He joined the senior clinical scientific staff at the MRC Brain Metabolism Unit, Edinburgh University (1978-1986), and was a senior lecturer in psychiatry at Edinburgh University from 1986-1991.

At Edinburgh he studied the epidemiology of early onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) in Scotland and identified childhood environmental factors which increased risk and reduced survival after dementia onset. He then led a number of prospective studies of cognitive decline using population based cohorts he had established. A Wellcome Professorial Senior Fellowship (2001–2006), allowed him to continue his work which showed the association between dementia and childhood IQ, education, smoking, genetic and nutritional factors. Working with colleagues in imaging he explored changes in cognitive performance over time and their relationship with MRI images of the brain.

Lawrence authored or co-authored more than 300 papers, seven books and contributed to many TV and radio programs mostly about the dementias of old age.

Lawrence was a brilliant clinician scientist and a valued member of our University family.

Our thoughts are with his family.  

Details of any funeral or memorial service will be shared once they are known. In the meantime, I would urge anyone affected by Lawrence’s death to speak to your line manager or a colleague, or make use of the various University support services: 

With best wishes 

Bhatty

Professor Siladitya Bhattacharya

Head of the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition