Griffith Edwards was the foremost academic psychiatrist in the field of alcohol and drag addiction of his generation. In a career that spanned nearly 50 years, he established the study of addiction as a serious field of scientific endeavor in the UK and internationally. In 1967, he became the first director of the Addiction Research Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital in London, which subsequently became a Medical Research Council research unit, and was renamed the National Addiction Centre in 1991 (Edwards, 1989). As the first professor of addiction behavior in Britain, he was able to attract and nurture several generations of researchers, with a rare mix of sharp intellect, enthusiasm, wise advice and a keen sense of humor. His unit became a leading research centre internationally and many of his team members are now research leaders in addictions across the world.
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