Dr. Thomas Insel is an American neuroscientist and psychiatrist who led the US National Institute of Mental Health from 2002 until 2015. During his tenure his team spent more than $20 billion in research. The most of any mental health organisation in the world.

During his time at the NIMH Dr Insel focused a lot on serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar illness, and major depressive disorder. He also established autism as a major area of focus and led a large increase of funding for autism research.

After his time at the National Institute of Mental Health he did a stint leading the Mental Health Team at Verily Life Sciences—formerly Google Life Sciences—before launching his own company MindStrong with two other founders. MindStrong is attempting to transform mental health through innovations in virtual care, data measurement, and data science.