Professor Allan Young trained in Medicine and Psychiatry at the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. He has held academic appointments at the Universities of Edinburgh， Oxford and Newcastle upon Tyne， latterly holding the Chair of General Psychiatry at Newcastle. 

He currently holds the Leading Edge Endowment Fund Endowed Chair in Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia， Vancouver， Canada， where he is also the Director of the Institute of Mental Health. His research interests focus on the cause and treatments for severe psychiatric illnesses， particularly mood disorders. 

Professor Young has received research grant funding from the UK Medical research Council， the Wellcome Trust， the Stanley Medical Research Institute， the Canadian Institutes for Heath Research (CIHR)， the National Institutes of Health (USA) and numerous other funding agencies. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications. 

Professor Young is a member of a number of editorial boards and is the North American Editor of “Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment”.  Professor Young is a member of numerous professional and scientific societies and is currently Treasurer of the International Society for Affective Disorders and a Fellow and Member of the executive council of the CINP.