Professor Alistair Burns is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry and Vice Dean for the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences at The University of Manchester. He is an Honorary Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist in the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust (MMHSCT) and is the National Clinical Director for Dementia and National Clinical Director for Mental Health in Older People at NHS England.

He graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1980 and trained in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry in London. He became the Foundation Chair of Old Age Psychiatry at the University of Manchester in 1992, where he has been Head of the Division of Psychiatry and Vice Dean in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, with responsibility for liaison within the NHS. He set up the memory clinic in MMHSCT and helped establish the old age liaison psychiatry service in UHSMT. He is a past President of the International Psychogeriatric Association.

He is Editor of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and is on the Editorial Boards of the British Journal of Psychiatry and International Psychogeriatrics. His research and clinical interests are in mental health problems of older people, particularly dementia and Alzheimer's disease. He has published over 300 papers and 25 books