Spotlight on... Tim Young

What is your role and what does it involve?

I am a professor of teaching at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology (IoN), UCL. My background as a long-standing medical doctor and neurologist is important in my role of leading our postgraduate MSc/Diploma/Certificate course in Clinical Neurology, teaching doctors online across six continents. Neurological diseases are common but there is a shortage of neurologists both in the UK and globally, while many doctors can be wary of the subject as it is considered to be the most difficult medical speciality. I want to help show doctors and medical students that neurology does not have to be that hard and can be a fascinating subject.

The second course I lead also depends heavily on my dual background in neurology and medical education. This is the Clinical Neurology & Brain Sciences iBSc, a one-year degree taught face-to-face for medical students. I designed and developed the course, the first ever undergraduate degree at our institute, so I had plenty to learn in setting it up! For both these courses I have been strongly supported by many wonderful colleagues in the IoN Education Team, in particular the excellent senior administrators Anna Foakes and Lucy Piechnik. I am also extremely grateful to all my students past and present who continue to inspire me.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I have been at UCL for seven years, for most of this time also working part time clinically as a neurology consultant. Before that I worked full time as a doctor extensively in the UK and also in Singapore since I qualified in the 1990’s.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

Coming back from failing at medical school in Bristol in 1988 to finish top in medicine at King’s College London, developing our Clinical Neurology & Brain Sciences iBSc degree course, and being awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in Edinburgh earlier this month.

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list

I hope I can name two!

i) I have been collaborating with the highly skilled local ceramicist Helen Johannessen to make ceramic models of brains with an aim to help students learn about the anatomy of the cortex in a hands-on, 3-D manner. I still have a hope that Helen’s wonderful artwork based on the brain might yet be granted a place in the IoN’s major new neuroscience building at 256 Grays Inn Road when the construction is finished. 

ii)  I continue to volunteer for the Crisis Rescue Foundation providing free online lectures for thousands of medical students/doctors whose medical education has been impacted by conflict in Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere. This programme was set up in 2022 and is run by the amazing Dr Sharon Raymond, a London GP. Although we all give our teaching for free there are some pressing administration costs, including for large scale Zoom calls, and if anyone knows any potential grants to help cover that to allow this vital programme to continue I would love to hear from you!

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

Album: Faith by The Cure
Film: Casablanca
Novel: A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro.

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)? 

How did the barber win a marathon?  … He knew a short cut!

Who would be your dream dinner guests?  

In addition to my lovely wife Debbie and son Luke, I would love to have the Icelandic singer Björk, Kate Bush, Barack Obama, Morgan Freeman, and Jesus Christ as dinner guests. If I am allowed to stretch back in time too: My late Mum and Dad, Abraham Lincoln, and Jeanne d'Arc.

What advice would you give your younger self? 

Don’t give up.

What would it surprise people to know about you? 

I have danced and sung on the stage professionally (this is technically correct!)

What is your favourite place?

Whale Chine on the Isle of Wight. It is almost impossible to reach the beach there, but it is stunning if you do make it to the shore and to the huge fossil ammonites hiding there.