Can a robot seduce you?

Dr Raj Persaud is a Consultant Psychiatrist who has worked at numerous prestigious institutions in psychiatry including The Bethlem Royal and Maudsley NHS Hospitals Trust in London and the Institute of Psychiatry plus the Institute of Neurology, University of London as well as Johns Hopkins Hospital in the USA, which are the leading teaching, research and clinical institutions in psychiatry in Europe and the USA.

His NHS Consultant appointment at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hopsitals NHS Trust, was as a General Adult Consultant Psychiatrist with a special interest in Eating Disorders.

Unusually for a psychiatrist he also holds a degree in psychology that he obtained with First Class Honours, and in addition he has been awarded over 8 degrees and diplomas including a Masters in Statistics. He has been recognised for the innovative nature of his research by the receipt of numerous academic awards and prizes including the prestigious Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Medal and Prize and The Maudsley Hospital's own Denis Hill Prize plus the exclusive medical award, the Osler Medal. The Royal College of Psychiatrists recently awarded him the Morris Markowe Prize for his Public Engagement work and elected him a Fellow of the College – one of the highest honours it can bestow on a member.

In 2004 he has been appointed Gresham Professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry – Gresham College was founded in the 16th Century and the venerated Royal Society developed from it. 

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has elected Raj Persaud to be the Editor of its first book aimed at educating the public on psychology and psychiatry entitled 'The Mind: A Users Guide' published in 2007, consisting of over 50 chapters from distinguished members of the profession and which reached the top ten best-seller list. 

He has refereed papers for the key medical journals of repute and has acted as external examiner for medical schools such as St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London. He has become known as the psychiatrist doctors turn to when they themselves develop mental health problems and is involved in one of the largest UK psychiatric clinics dealing with doctors. Besides his work in Britain he has been a research fellow and clinician at the top medical school in the USA, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He returned to work in the UK because of the strain of having to constantly search his American patients for guns!

Raj Persaud has delivered many of the distinguished annual lectures in British Medicine including the prestigious 2002 Florence Nightingale Lecture, The Whittington Oration, The Annual Oration of the Medical Society of London and the keynote lecture of the annual conference for National Institute of Clinical Excellence. He gave the widely publicised lecture celebrating the 50th anniversary of the foundation of The Samaritans. He has chaired prestigious panels, including chairing the International Aventis Science Book Prize for 2002 – the top book prize for science books given annually and judgeD the annual UK Broadcast Medical Journalism Awards, as well as the Health Service Journal Awards which include the Minister of Health's Award. 

He was elected the rare honour of a Fellow of University College London and has over many years been a patron and supporter of numerous mental health charities including OCD-UK, Psychiatric Research Trust, The Manic Depression Fellowship, Action Aid, Association of Post-Natal Illness, Childline and Ambassador for The Samaritans. 

Dr Persaud first met Dr Peter Bruggen, an eminent Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, while Dr Persaud was doing a three month elective at the famous Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit at Hill End Hospital, in St Albans. Dr Bruggen and Dr Persaud have collaborated on writing hundreds of articles on the internet about mental health.

The Independent on Sunday Newspaper conducted a poll amongst members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Institute of Psychiatry to discover who were the top ten psychiatrists in the UK as rated by fellow psychiatrists. Dr Raj Persaud was the youngest doctor to make it into this esteemed list. The Times Newspaper also  placed him as one of the Top Twenty Mental Health Gurus in the world.

He is one of an extremely small group of doctors who are members of both the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Psychological Society. He lives in Central London, is married and has two children who are the ultimate test of his sanity. To relax he has played poker at The Savile Club in Mayfair and tennis at Queens Club in Barons Court.  He has been ranked at no 6 in the UK for Men's Beach Tennis.