TY - JOUR
T1 - Editorial
T2 - ‘The giant’s shoulders’: understanding Michael Rutter’s impact on science and society
AU - Sonuga-Barke, Edmund
AU - Fearon, Pasco
AU - Scott, Stephen
N1 - Funding Information:
Edmund Sonuga-Barke has received consultancy from Neurotech Solutions, grant funding from QB-Tech and speaker fees from Takeda and Medice. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry from whom he receives an honorarium. His research is supported by the Maudsley NIHR BRC, the ESRC, MRC and NIHR. Pasco Fearon is Deputy Editor in Chief of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry for which he receives an honorarium. His research is supported by the Wellcome Trust, Department for Education, ESRC, MRC and NIHR. Stephen Scott is the president of ACAMH and has no conflicts of interest to declare in relation to this editorial.
Funding Information:
Edmund Sonuga‐Barke has received consultancy from Neurotech Solutions, grant funding from QB‐Tech and speaker fees from Takeda and Medice. He is the editor‐in‐chief of the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry from whom he receives an honorarium. His research is supported by the Maudsley NIHR BRC, the ESRC, MRC and NIHR. Pasco Fearon is Deputy Editor in Chief of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry for which he receives an honorarium. His research is supported by the Wellcome Trust, Department for Education, ESRC, MRC and NIHR. Stephen Scott is the president of ACAMH and has no conflicts of interest to declare in relation to this editorial.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - The recent death of our colleague and friend Professor Sir Michael Rutter has quite rightly been greeted by an outpouring of gratitude and respect from distinguished commentators across the globe working in diverse fields of the basic, social and clinical sciences as well as from clinicians and policy makers. These have without exception highlighted his seminal role as a pioneer, perhaps The Pioneer, of the application of the scientific method to the study of child and adolescent mental health and disorder – the father of evidence-based Child Psychiatry and the most influential voice in the new field of Developmental Psychopathology (Stevenson, 2022). In this editorial, we will attempt to build on these commentaries. We will parse Mike’s scientific contributions to our field, in order to identify the personal characteristics and intellectual modus operandi that made him such a uniquely important figure, whose influence will resonate through the many fields he influenced for decades to come. We will also attempt something of a reframing of that contribution. Our thesis being that, although he never agitated for it politically or even stated it as a goal explicitly, Mike’s work was motivated by a desire for social reform and created the scientific catalyst for such reform to occur.
AB - The recent death of our colleague and friend Professor Sir Michael Rutter has quite rightly been greeted by an outpouring of gratitude and respect from distinguished commentators across the globe working in diverse fields of the basic, social and clinical sciences as well as from clinicians and policy makers. These have without exception highlighted his seminal role as a pioneer, perhaps The Pioneer, of the application of the scientific method to the study of child and adolescent mental health and disorder – the father of evidence-based Child Psychiatry and the most influential voice in the new field of Developmental Psychopathology (Stevenson, 2022). In this editorial, we will attempt to build on these commentaries. We will parse Mike’s scientific contributions to our field, in order to identify the personal characteristics and intellectual modus operandi that made him such a uniquely important figure, whose influence will resonate through the many fields he influenced for decades to come. We will also attempt something of a reframing of that contribution. Our thesis being that, although he never agitated for it politically or even stated it as a goal explicitly, Mike’s work was motivated by a desire for social reform and created the scientific catalyst for such reform to occur.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121551388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jcpp.13558
DO - 10.1111/jcpp.13558
M3 - Editorial
AN - SCOPUS:85121551388
SN - 0021-9630
VL - 63
SP - 1
EP - 3
JO - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines
JF - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines
IS - 1
ER -
