Essi Viding is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at University College London. Her exceptional scientific contribution has been to use multiple methodologies to enlighten us about the biology and psychology of children with psychopathic tendencies. She demonstrated that children with such tendencies are a distinct, genetically vulnerable subgroup of those displaying antisocial behaviour, with specific structural and functional abnormalities in brain areas involved in emotion processing and regulation. Her research has been critical in enabling these children to be recognised in international diagnostic schemes and has enabled their humane, compassionate individualised treatment. Her work is now guiding worldwide intervention efforts evidencing the extraordinary social, legal and clinical relevance of her discoveries.