Executive Committee 2024 - 2026

Dr. Kazutaka Ikeda is the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science. He graduated from the Faculty of Technology at The University of Tokyo (B.Eng.) in 1989 and obtained his M.Med degree from Osaka University in 1991 and Ph.D. degree from Niigata University in 1995. While in Prof. Mishina’s laboratory at Niigata University, he cloned cDNA for the NMDA GluN2D receptor channel subunit and produced mice that lacked this subunit. He also produced mice that lacked the glutamate GluD2 receptor channel subunit and revealed a pivotal role for this subunit in motor control. Furthermore, he started studies on the opioid system and G protein-activated inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels.

As a research fellow at RIKEN Brain Science Institute (1995-2000), he continued opioid and GIRK research and started studies on the dopamine system. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow (2000), Acting Chair (2002), and Chair (2003) in the Department of Molecular Psychiatry, Tokyo Institute Psychiatry, and Leader of the Addiction Substance Project (2011) and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science (2015). While at these institutions, he continued studies on addiction, schizophrenia, analgesia, and neurodevelopmental disorders at the molecular, genetic, animal-behavioral, and clinical levels. He has approximately 300 publications on these topics in prominent scientific journals. He was awarded the Distinguished International Scientist Collaboration Program Award from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2004, among several other awards. He is serving as an Academic Editor of PLoS One, a Field Editor of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, and an Editorial Board Member of several other journals. He has been a Fellow of CINP since 2010 and served as CINP Councillor (2016-2018).

The Japanese Society of Neuropsychopharmacology (JSNP) has over 1300 members and is under the umbrella of CINP. He is currently President of JSNP (2016-2018). He is President-elect (2017-2018) of the Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (AsCNP), which has over 3000 members and is also under the umbrella of CINP. He is a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacolgy (since 2014). He is also a member of the Science Council of Japan (2014-2020).

Prof. Zohar is the Director of the National Post-Trauma Center, Research Foundation by the Sheba Medical Center, Israel. He is an emeritus professor of Psychiatry at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, at Tel Aviv University.  

Prof. Zohar is the past-President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP). He is also chair of the Israeli consortium on PTSD, chair of the International College of Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (ICOCS), a board member for the International Master in Affective Neuroscience, and a visiting Professor at the University of Maastricht in The Netherland.

Prof. Zohar had authored over 350 papers, had written or took part in the writing of 16 books focusing on Resistant Depression, OCD, PTSD and Psychotropic. He was the founding associate editor of CNS Spectrums and of the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry. Prof. Zohar was advisor to DSM – IV and 5 in OCD and co-chair of the Workgroup preparing the research agenda on OCD for DSM-5. He has pioneered and is currently the Chair of an international collaboration (joint venture of ECNP, ACNP, CINP, AsCNP and IUPAR) on developing new nomenclature for CNS drugs; NbN - Neuroscience based Nomenclature. He is also the chair of the Expert Platform on Mental Health focus on Depression

Prof. Zohar had been honored with several awards, including the Fogarty International Research Fellowship Award (1984), the A.E. Bennet Award for Clinical Research (1986 and 2002), ECNP Neuroscience Award for Clinical Research (1998), and the WFSBP Award for Excellence in Education (2001).

Prof. Zohar has recently (2012) received funding (RO1) from National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to explore secondary prevention of PTSD and from NATO (2018) to develop a guideline on the treatment in the “Golden Hours” after a terror attack. He is also the Co-Chair of EU grant on Problematic Use of Internet PUI (2017).

Dr. Gabriella Gobbi is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, McGill University.

She leads a laboratory of basic science (Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit) and works as a Staff Psychiatrist at the Mood Disorder Clinic of the McGill University Health Center.

Her research approach spans from bench to bedside, bridging the gaps between fundamental and clinical research. Dr. Gobbi received her MD (1991) and her specialty in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (1995) from the Catholic University of Rome (Italy). She also earned a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Cagliari, Italy) and finalized a post-doc at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 1998.
Dr Gobbi’s lab is interested in understanding the pathophysiology of major depression and sleep related disorders and in the discovery of new treatments and cures for them.

In particular, her laboratory is studying the short- and long-term effects of cannabis use in mood and anxiety, and the potential beneficial effects of the drugs acting on the endocannabinoid system (endogenous cannabis) in the cure of mental diseases. Her lab is also studying the effect of melatonin in mood, anxiety and sleep regulation in an effort to understand how novel selective ligands for melatonin receptors (called MT1 and MT2 receptors) can be used to treat seasonal depression, major depression, sleep disorders, as well as pain.

Dr. Gobbi is author of more than 90 highly cited manuscripts in high impact journals, 20 book chapters, one book and holds two international patents in psychopharmacology.

She has received several fellowships for more than $10M as a principal investigator. She has won many prizes including the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CCNP) Young investigator Award in 2012, the Venezia Prize in 2015 and the Sam Lal prize from the Boeckh Foundation in 2017. She has served as reviewer/editor for many journals, international grant agencies in Europe and the USA and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Dan Rujescu is Chair of the Clinical Division of General Psychiatry of the Medical University of Vienna. He received his medical degree from the Universities Heidelberg and Essen. From 1993-1995 he worked as a physician at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Mainz. Afterwards, he moved to the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Munich where he became Head of the Division of Molecular and Clinical Neurobiology, a senior physician, a medical specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy, a full Professor for Psychiatry, Head of the Alzheimer Memorial Center, as well as Deputy Head of the Department. From 2012 till Spring 2021 he was Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of the University of Halle, Germany. He refers to an extensive list of publications comprising more than 750 publications with a Hirschfaktor of 90 (e.g. Nature; Nature Genetics). He has top-class national and in particular international collaborations and to date has been able to raise more than € 9.2 million in thirdparty funds, including part of eight EU-funded projects, three genome-wide genotyping initiatives of the Wellcome Trust (WTCCC2/3), one DFG priority programme, one project of the Bavarian Research Foundation, two R01 projects of the National Institutes of Mental Health (USA), one project of the National Genome Research Network, and one project of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Dan Rujescu is member of several national and international scientific societies. Within the World Society of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) he is head of the “Genetics” task force and Chief-Editor of the “World Journal of Biological Psychiatry”. Furthermore, he is PI e.g. of the EU:FP7: project “Optimising current therapeutic approaches to schizophrenia. Optimization of Treatment and Management of Schizophrenia (OPTIMISE)” and the EU:FP7 consortium “Pharmacogenomic biomarkers as clinical decision making tools for clozapine treatment of schizophrenia (CRESTAR)”.

Chair of Mood Disorders and Director of the Centre for Affective Disorders in the Department of Psychological Medicine in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, where he is also Head of School for Academic Psychiatry. The School of Academic Psychiatry is second in the world rankings for Psychiatry (https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/psychiatry-psychology). He is the clinical academic lead in the Psychological Medicine Clinical Academic Group in the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, and a Consultant Psychiatrist and Head of the Affective Disorders Service.

Professor Young’s research interests focus on the cause and treatments for severe psychiatric illnesses, particularly mood disorders. He has over 750 peer-reviewed publications, including several books about psychopharmacology and affective disorders. He is editor of the Journal of Psychopharmacology and deputy editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry (Open). His H-index is 102 on Scopus and a lifetime total of over 50000 citations of his papers with over 4900 citations of his work in 2023 alone and he is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher: ranking in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index. Professor Young’s current grant funding exceeds £40 million (£7 Million as PI) (please see https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/allan.young/projects/ ). Not yet listed on PURE are recent are grants awarded as PI including an i4i NIHR Grant (approx. £2million, NIHR206433) and a second round of Mental Health Mission Funding (£1.8 million): both run for 4 more years.

He is currently vice-President of the CINP and Chair of the Academic Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is a past President of the International Society for Affective Disorders and the British Association of Psychopharmacology and Inaugural Chair of the RCPsych Special Committee for Psychopharmacology. He is a trustee of the Drug Safety Research Unit (DSRU), which is internationally respected for its work in Pharmacovigilance, Pharmacoepidemiology, Risk Management and Training Services.

Dr. Hiroyuki Uchida is the Chair and Professor at the Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan. He specializes in clinical psychopharmacology in schizophrenia and depression.

He received his MD and PhD at Keio University School of Medicine in 1998 and 2006. Following his graduate training, he joined the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, and conducted brain imaging studies and pharmacokinetic work with a focus on aging in schizophrenia as a post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Uchida came back to Keio University School of Medicine and became the head of Psychopharmacology Lab.

Dr. Uchida has been performing a series of clinical trials, brain imaging work, and pharmacokinetic studies, focusing on the optimal antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia and depression. He has authored/co-authored more than 400 articles and book chapters and received numerous academic awards, including the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum, Poster Award, the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, Barry Lebowitz Early Career Scientist Award, and the Japanese Society of Neuropsychopharmacology, Academic Encouragement Award. He works as a co-editor for Pharmacopsychiatry, a field editor for Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, an advisory editor for Psychopharmacology, and an editorial board member for CNS Spectrums. He is a Judo black belt holder.