Rate My Professor Simon Lewis

Simon Lewis, MBBCh, BSc, MRCP, FRACP, FRCP, MD, is a Professor of Cognitive Neurology at Macquarie Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University. As a consultant neurologist, he has sub-specialised in degenerative diseases of the brain, including Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, and related conditions. His career includes prior appointments at the University of Sydney Brain and Mind Research Institute. Currently, he directs the Parkinson’s Disease Research Clinic at Macquarie University, heads the NSW Movement Disorders Brain Donor Program, serves as Clinical Lead for the Australian Parkinson’s Mission, and chairs the International Consortium for Freezing of Gait since 2024. An NHMRC Leadership Fellow, he received the Leonard Cox Award in 2014 from the Australia and New Zealand Association of Neurologists for significant contributions to neuroscience as an early career researcher. He has secured over $10 million in research funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australian Research Council (ARC), and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Lewis’s integrated research program utilises neuroimaging, neurophysiology, neuropathology, chronobiology, neurogenetics, and peripheral biomarkers to evaluate symptoms such as dementia, gait disturbance, sleep-wake problems, and hallucinations. His work focuses on predicting disease onset, conducting disease-modifying drug trials, and improving treatments for neurodegenerative conditions. He leads multiple active projects, including trials on guanfacine for cognition in Parkinson’s disease, sodium selenate for progressive supranuclear palsy, and neuromelanin-sensitive imaging as biomarkers. Lewis has authored over 300 peer-reviewed papers, two books, and eight book chapters, with an h-index of 78 (Scopus) and over 35,000 citations (Google Scholar). Key publications include “Melatonin for rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder in Parkinson’s disease: a randomised controlled trial” (2020, Movement Disorders), “Evidence for subtypes of freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease” (2018, Movement Disorders), “An updated definition of freezing of gait” (2026, Nature Reviews Neurology), and “Visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease” (2025, Brain). He mentors junior doctors, nurses, and research students to build capacity in clinical and research fields.