Tribute to Professor Steve Baldwin

The University of Teesside’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Derek Fraser today paid tribute to Professor Steve Baldwin, who died in the Selby train crash, saying: “Steve Baldwin joined us in 1998 and made a massive contribution to the University through his teaching and his research and above all through his inspirational support for his students and his colleagues.”

The Vice-Chancellor added: “The whole University community is in shock. We have lost an immensely valued and talented colleague. Our thoughts are with all of those whose lives he touched who will miss him so much.”

Professor Steve Baldwin became Professor in Psychology at the University in 1998 and was an extremely influential figure within the international academic community, particularly in the fields of mental health and public health.

His research findings in the areas of drug, alcohol and cigarette addiction were published widely and he regularly spoke at major conferences, both in the UK and abroad.

He was to have been a keynote speaker at an important seminar on whether psychiatrists ‘over-mediate the exuberance of youth’ on the evening of Wednesday 28 February at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.

Last year, he set-up a special clinic at the University of Teesside to help children and teenagers who had been prescribed the Ritalin drug as treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)- the first of its kind in the country.

The Clinical and Counselling Training Units (CACTUS) clinic was set up with the specific aim of providing alternative treatments to the amphetamine drug Ritalin and Professor Baldwin was regularly in the media spotlight, appearing on Panorama and in The Times and The Observer, highlighting his campaigning and research work.

In 1999, he co-edited a new text ‘Controlled or Reduced Smoking: An Annotated Bibliography', which considered the alternative for chronic smokers of reducing smoking as an achievement in itself and the first step towards eventual cessation. He also set up a national service for teenagers with drink and drug problems funded by a £434,000 grant from Comic Relief in Manchester in the early 1990s.

At his inaugural professorial lecture in 1999, Professor Derek Fraser (Vice-Chancellor at the University of Teesside) welcomed him, by saying: “In every position he has held Professor Baldwin has demonstrated scholarship and academic leadership of the highest level.”

Notes to Editors

Steve Baldwin was a Psychology graduate from Plymouth Polytechnic and gained a MSc in Psychopathology from the University of Leicester and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Dundee. He also gained the Diploma in Clinical Psychology of the British Psychological Society.

Before moving into academic research, Steve Baldwin worked as a Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Health and Social Security and in Sheffield Health Authority as a Senior Clinical Psychologist with Devon Social Services.

In the mid 1980s, he was a Research Fellow and Honorary Senior Psychologist at the University of Dundee and Tayside Health Board, before moving to Jersey as a Consultant Psychologist and also taking on the role of Visiting Research Fellow at Plymouth Polytechnic.

He then moved to the University of Aberdeen as MSc Director and Senior Lecturer before taking on the role of Foundation Associate Professor at the Edith Cowan University in Australia.

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