User:Gareth Leng

I am Gareth Leng, [1] From 2007-2015 I was Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Edinburgh; now I have completed my term and am returning to normal academic duties as Professor of Experimental Physiology. I am a former President of the International Neuroendocrine Federation, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a former editor-in-chief of The Journal of Neuroendocrinology.

My core academic expertise is in Neuroscience, Endocrinology and Physiology. My research interests are described here

Bio

I gained a first class Honours degree in Mathematics from the University of Warwick in 1974, then took an MSc in "Neurocommunications" at the University of Birmingham in 1975, staying on to complete a PhD in Auditory Physiology in 1977. In October 1977 I was appointed by Barry Cross, then Director of the Institute of Animal Physiology (at Cambridge UK, now The Babraham Institute) as a project leader in his research group, in Neuroendocrinology. I remained at Babraham until 1994, when I moved to the University of Edinburgh to take up the newly-established Chair of Experimental Physiology.

From 1993-2000 I was a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Physiology, and for the first two years of that period was Press Secretary for the Journal, and a Committee member of the Physiological Society. I was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology from 1997 to 2004. I was President of the International Neuroendocrine Federation from 2011-2015. I am an Honorary Member of the British Neuroendocrine Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the Physiological Society.

My research has been mainly on the hypothalamic control of hormone secretion, and has involved electrophysiological studies of neurones and networks, but has involved some computational modeling, studies of gene expression, and studies of behaviour.

At Edinburgh, my teaching has been to both science and medical students, and I have served terms as Chairs of the Honours Exam Boards in Physiology, Neuroscience, and Medical Biology. The Medical Biology Honours programme is a new programme in the organisation of which I have been deeply involved. This programme of final year undergraduate studies analyses major contemporary health "problems" and studies the role of science in developing new approaches to them Accordingly an important part of that programme is in exploring the scientific foundations of medicine, and in how to objectively evaluate the benefits and risks of health interventions. An important part of that course involves studying how "popular" images of science and medicine arise through media coverage, and in assessing their reliability.

I have a particular interest therefore in controversial issues in science and medicine, and in how to approach these rigorously and objectively. I blog here occasionally.

Books

Gareth Leng (2018) The Heart of the Brain: the hypothalamus and its hormones. MIT Press

Gareth Leng and Rhodri Leng (2020) The Matter of Facts: Skepticism, Persuasion and Evidence in Science. MIT Press (Reviewed in Nature 582:175-176 Beware the illusion of certainty: it can be weaponized.)

Public Lectures On Youtube

The loving brain Do our genes still fit?

British Society for Neuroendocrinology - Interview with Gareth Leng

This is a blog post linked to Heart of the Brain

On Citizendium

On Citizendium I have contributed to many articles on diverse topics. I was the main author on the approved articles Scientific Method and Oxytocin and a lessor contributor to others, including Biology, Chiropractic, Life and Homeopathy.

Specializations

Neuroendocrinology