Professor David Llewellyn
Professor in Clinical Epidemiology
Health and Community Sciences
College House
St Luke's Campus
Exeter EX1 2LU
Professor David Llewellyn is an internationally recognised leader in dementia risk reduction, brain health, early diagnosis and precision medicine. He is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Digital Health at the University of Exeter Medical School, where he has also served as Director of Research and Impact, influencing institutional strategy. He currently serves as Research Excellence Framework (REF) Lead for Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care, guiding Exeter’s research profile in one of the UK’s most competitive assessment areas.
Professor Llewellyn moved to Exeter in 2009 following advanced training in epidemiology and data science at the University of Cambridge. He held a prestigious Fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national centre for data science and artificial intelligence, from 2018 to 2024. During this period, he co-founded the Turing Interest Group in Precision Dementia Medicine and served as the Turing Exeter University Clinical Lead.
His research has shaped international clinical and policy debate through highly cited publications in the world’s leading journals, including JAMA, BMJ, JAMA Neurology, JAMA Psychiatry, Nature Genetics, Lancet Regional Health: Europe, Lancet Healthy Longevity and Alzheimer’s & Dementia. He has published 135 peer-reviewed papers to date, garnering over 19,000 citations. Several of his papers are ranked among the top 100 most high-profile scientific publications worldwide of a similar age across all fields.
Professor Llewellyn directs the DEMON Network, a major global initiative that utilises data science and AI to transform dementia and brain health research and healthcare, with more than 1,600 members. He sits on Alzheimer’s Society’s Grant Review Board and Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Clinical Policy Advisory Panel. He has secured more than £18 million in research funding, including support from the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the U.S. National Institute on Aging.
His work continues to drive innovation in clinical decision-making, prevention strategies and next-generation brain health services, with a central goal of improving dementia prevention, accelerating diagnosis and transforming care at a population scale.
