Alasdair Coles

Dr. Alasdair Coles is an academic neurologist whose primary research interest is in the immunology and treatment of multiple sclerosis. His amateur research interest is in the neurological basis for religious experience, stemming from managing a small cohort of patients with spiritual experiences due to temporal lobe epilepsy. He has given invited lectures on this subject at the Department of Theology, Liverpool Hope University and the Department of Religious Studies, Calgary University (a Templeton funded invited lecture).He was scientific adviser and contributor to “Here’s Johnny”, a Wellcome-funded documentary about the effects of multiple sclerosis on graphic artist Johnny Hicklenton. The film won two Grierson awards in November 2008 for Best Arts Documentary & Best Newcomer.He is employed as a senior lecturer by Cambridge University and has a small research team managing clinical trials and doing human immunological laboratory work. He does clinical work for two days a week as a consultant neurologist at Addenbrooke’s and Peterborough Hospitals, is one of the medical advisers to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of the UK, and advises several pharmaceutical companies.Dr. Coles was ordained priest in the Church of England in 2009 and is now working, part-time, as a curate in a church in Cambridge