Consultant Neurosurgeon Professor Michael Jenkinson and Consultant Neurologist Professor Tony Marson have been given Senior Investigator awards by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

The roles recognise the most prominent and prestigious researchers in the health and care sector. Together, NIHR senior investigators help to shape the direction of health and social care, and public health research carried out nationally.

Professor Jenkinson was appointed as a Consultant Neurosurgeon at The Walton Centre in March 2010. He was appointed Professor of Neurosurgery at The University of Liverpool in 2019 and is the Sir John Fisher Foundation / RCSEng Chair of Surgical Trials there. 

He has been an active researcher over his career, leading vital work such as the NIHR-funded BASICS trial investigating antibiotic shunts used in brain surgery, to improve outcomes for patients. This research led to making antibiotic shunts standard practice in the UK – impacting thousands of patients in neurosurgery.  

In 2025 he received the prestigious Vilhelm Magnus Medal, often described as the “Nobel Prize of Neurosurgery”, in recognition of his efforts to improve neurosurgical treatment outcomes, particularly in the field of neuro-oncology and clinical trials.

Professor Jenkinson said: “I’m honoured to receive this prestigious award. As a NIHR Senior Investigator, I look forward to promoting research excellence, mentoring and developing the next generation of researchers. Over the next four year years, I will continue to push forward with research that will hopefully benefit patients with brain tumours and other neurosurgical conditions.” 

Professor Marson is an international authority on epilepsy, Dean of The University of Liverpool Institute of Systems Molecular and Integrative Biology and Deputy Director of the Liverpool Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Centre (LINC).

He also leads of the University of Liverpool’s Liverpool Epilepsy Research Group, and has led the largest clinical trials and other evaluations of treatments that underpin treatment policy in the NHS, and around the globe.

Professor Marson said: “I’m delighted that I have been re-appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator. Finding new ways to treat and manage someone’s epilepsy safely is of the utmost importance to me, as is training and bringing on the next generation of researchers across a range of disciplines. I look forward to working with other senior investigators in innovating further, and feeding that into services for people with epilepsy and other neurological conditions.”