Martin Rossor is Professor of Clinical Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery London and the NIHR National Director for Dementia Research.

Martin established a specialist cognitive disorders clinic which acts as a tertiary referral service for young onset and rare dementias. In order to support the clinic he established a telephone support service for patients “Counselling and Diagnosis in Dementia” (CANDID) which received the BUPA/Patient Association Award in 2000 and has since fostered the development of a number of patient support groups. As editor of JNNP (2004-2009) he introduced ‘patient choice’ in which an article of particular relevance was selected by a patient organisation representative for free online access.

As Director of DeNDRoN (Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinical Research Network) he supported the NIHR vision of strong public and patient engagement and involvement through patient and carer representation on clinical study groups and involvement of patients and carers in portfolio development and grant writing. As NIHR National Director for Dementia Research he has launched, in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK a public portal – Join Dementia Research – for those interested in participating in research to register and be matched to relevant studies. He has worked closely with a number of charities and is a vice president of the UK Alzheimer’s Society.