Revd Dr Alasdair Coles
Rev Dr Alasdair Coles is a lecturer in neuroimmunology (study of the nervous and immune system together) at Cambridge University and an honorary consultant neurologist to Addenbrooke’s and Hinchingbrooke Hospitals. He is involved in research into new treatments for multiple sclerosis (a disease that causes damage to the nerves).
His amateur research interest, in the neurological basis for religious experience, came from managing a small cohort of patients with spiritual experiences due to temporal lobe epilepsy (seizures in the parts of the brain that are involved in speech, memory and hearing). He has given lectures on this subject at several universities. Alasdair was ordained in the Church of England in 2008 and is now a curate at St Andrews Church, Cambridge, alongside his medical and scientific work. Alasdair is married to Olivia and they have two young children.