Keith Hawton is an international leader in the field of suicide research. The Centre for Suicide Research at Oxford University that he founded is known throughout the world as the premier Centre for work on the interface of clinical and epidemiological psychiatry for suicidal behaviour. His research contributed to the CSM decision to restrict pack sizes of paracetamol and subsequent demonstration that this initiative saves many lives each year. Hawton’s work was the first to highlight the dangers of co-proxamol overdose, and led directly to the MHRA investigating the risk/benefit ratio for this drug and its decision in 2007 to withdraw it. Hawton’s innovative clinical research has been the greatest single contributor to international knowledge about self-harm over the past 36 years, contributing to NICE guidelines on services for self-harm patients.