Former Edinburgh Neuroscience Director Professor Charles ffrench-Constant bids farewell to take on exciting new role

At the end of March, after 14 years at the University of Edinburgh, we bid farewell to Professor Charles ffrench-Constant as he moves to a new and exciting role as Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of East Anglia. Charles' contribution to Edinburgh Neuroscience has been enormous and we will miss his foresight,  insight, and good humour.

Charles joined the University of Edinburgh in 2007 as Professor of Medical Neurology and immediately actively engaged with our neuroscience community.  During his time in Edinburgh Charles has been a major contributor to the success of Edinburgh Neuroscience.

In addition to his role as Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine (2010-2015), where he oversaw it's move into a dedicated building at Bioquarter, in 2007 Charles founded the MS Society Edinburgh Centre for MS Research and was its inaugural Director, overseeing and assisting in successful renewals in 2015 and 2021. In 2010, with Professor Siddharthan Chandran, he was instrumental in establishing the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, where he was Co-Director.

In 2013 Charles was appointed Director of Edinburgh Neuroscience, a role he held until 2016. During this time he was responsible for delivering our very successful REF2014 return and, as Dean of Research for College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, he has just overseen submission of the CMVM REF2021 returns, which included the Edinburgh Neuroscience return. Charles also led our successful bid for the Wellcome PhD programme in Translational Neuroscience, a programme that was recently renewed, leaving the universty a legacy whose aim if to train the next generation of leaders in translational neuroscience.

Thank you Charles for your unwaving support for neuroscience research at the University of Edinburgh. We wish you well in your new role at the University of East Anglia.

The Centre for Regenertive Medicine have put together a really lovely video interview with Charles. You can view it here

During Charles' time as Director, we made a community mini-movie 'Ages of the Brain' which nicely encapulasated our community (and in which he briefly features!). You can view it here