Exeter Professor Huw Williams honoured for changing how prisons treat brain injury

A clinical neuropsychologist whose research helped change how the justice system treats people with brain injuries has been awarded a lifetime achievement prize by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

Professor Huw Williams, of the University of Exeter, received the BPS Lifetime Achievement in Psychology Award in recognition of a career spanning more than 100 published research papers and extensive work advising governments and international bodies.

His work has focused particularly on traumatic brain injury (TBI), physical damage to the brain caused by an external force, and its intersection with the criminal justice system. Research by his team has highlighted the high prevalence of TBI among people in prison, a population often poorly served by health and legal frameworks designed without that condition in mind.

Professor Williams has given evidence to the Justice Committee of the UK and Northern Ireland Parliament and the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament.

His work has been cited by MPs in House of Commons debates on TBI, and his name appears repeatedly in Hansard, the official record of parliamentary proceedings.

He has also advised national bodies including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Ministry of Justice, and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Internationally, his input has reached the UN Office for Drugs and Crime and contributed to the UN Global Study of Children Deprived of Liberty.

One notable outcome was the addition of commentary on neurodisability conditions arising from damage or dysfunction of the brain to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, with the aim of reducing the criminalisation of children at risk.

Professor Williams trained at the University of Wales, gaining both a PhD and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

He began his clinical career in London before joining the founding team of the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, a specialist unit in Ely, Cambridgeshire, widely regarded as a landmark in the field.

He subsequently held a visiting post at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge before taking up a lectureship at Exeter in 2000, where he has remained, rising to full professor.

Along with colleague Professor Jonathan Evans, he helped develop approaches to assessing and treating post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in people who have also suffered a traumatic brain injury a combination that presents particular clinical challenges.

He has served as both Secretary and Chair of the BPS Division of Neuropsychology.

The BPS Lifetime Achievement in Psychology Award is the society's highest individual honour, given to recognise an outstanding and sustained contribution to the discipline.

The BPS represents more than 60,000 psychologists across the UK.

Accepting the award, Professor Williams said the work was the result of collaboration with colleagues and crucially the patients and research participants whose experiences had informed it.

"It is also a profound testament to the experiences of our clients, patients, and participants, who provide us with the privileged insights necessary to drive real change," he said.