Dr. Dara M. Cannon is a lecturer and research scientist in the College of Medicine, in the National Univeristy of Ireland Galway. Dr. Cannon is Co-Director of the Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, Galway. Prior to returning to Ireland 3 years ago, Dara completed 5 years of neuroimaging-related research training as a fellow at the intramural program of the National Institute of Mental Health in the Molecular Imaging Branch & the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program. Dr. Cannon's expertise involves the neuroimaging modalities of positron emission tomography (PET) including mathematical modelling of PET data, and structural and diffusion-weighted (DTI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The application of these technologies is being used to study receptor mapping in the human brain as well as neurophysiological and
neuroanatomical correlates of mood disorders and first-episode and chronic treatment resistant schizophrenia. Dr. Cannon's grant support and awards have included two, National Alliance on Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), Young Investigator Awards for 2004 and 2006 and most recently, she was awarded the European Psychiatric Association, Neuroimaging Section Rising Star Award for 2009.

Dr Bonginkosi Chiliza is a senior psychiatrist at Tygerberg Hospital and senior lecturer at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests include first episode schizophrenia, particularly factors that influence outcome, psychopharmacology, and language access in mental health services. He has previously worked as a research fellow in the Schizophrenia Research Unit at the University of Stellenbosch on the project called, “A prospective study of clinical, biological and functional aspects of outcome in first-episode psychosis.”

Dr Chiliza has received a number of awards including the Hamilton Naki Clinical Research Fellowship (2007), the World Congress of Biological Psychiatry Travel Grant (2009), and the Schizophrenia International Research Society Travel Award (2010). He has co-authored a number of peer reviewed articles and is currently completing his doctorate under the supervision of Prof Robin Emsley.

After studying psychology at the University of Wales, Bangor, UK, Chris obtained his PhD from the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, UK, where he worked on neural mechanisms of attention and hemispatial neglect.  After that he completed his postdoctoral work in the Department of Experimental Psychology in Cambridge, where he developed an interest in neuropsychopharmacology, working on the pharmacological modulation of frontostriatal circuits involved in attention and executive control, primarily employing pharmacological fMRI methods.  Chris now works as a senior scientist at GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceuticals clinical unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where he uses a range of neuroimaging, cognitive, and genetic approaches to understanding and investigating new treatments for neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr. Frey is Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University and is an attending psychiatrist at the Mood Disorders Inpatient Program and the Women’s Health Concerns Clinic, St. Josephs Healthcare Hamilton. He completed his M.D. and specialization in Psychiatry at the Federal Medical School of Porto Alegre, Brazil, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Dr. Frey completed a Research Fellowship at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, working with brain imaging in bipolar disorder. Subsequently, Dr. Frey did a Postdoctoral Fellowship in PET imaging at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University. In 2008, Dr. Frey received a CIHR postdoctoral fellowship award to study brain imaging in perimenopausal women with depression. Currently, Dr. Frey holds a fellowship award from Father O’Sullivan Research Centre. Dr. Frey is interested in understanding the cerebral mechanisms involved in the neurobiology of bipolar and major depressive disorder. He has had more than 50 publications accepted in peer-reviewed journals and has presented his work in numerous conferences. In addition, he supervises graduate and undergraduate students in various research projects.

Dr. Se Hyun Kim  the intracellular signal transduction mechanisms related to the animal models of psychosis and the molecular targets of antipsychotic treatment. He has been authored or co-authored over 20 papers in Currently, he a postdoctoral researcher in Brain Korea 21 Division of Human Life Science at Seoul National University College of Medicine.

Eduard Maron received his undergraduate training in medicine in University of Tartu, and then continued PhD study and training in psychiatry in Tartu. Since 2005, he is Senior Scientist in Department of Psychiatry, University of Tartu. Since 2007, he has been the Head of Research Department of Mental Health at Psychiatry Clinic of The North Estonian Regional Hospital. Later he worked in research group of Professor David Nutt in Psychopharmacology Unit at the University of Bristol and in 2009 he was awarded by Imperial College Junior Research Fellowships. At the current time he is continuing fellowship in Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Molecular Imaging and GSK Clinical Imaging Centre at Imperial College London.

Eduard Maron is member of Scientific Advisory Board of Estonian Genome Centre and of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP).  His main research interest is related to experimental models, genetics and neuroimaging of anxiety and mood disorders.

Keri completed her doctoral training in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program under the mentorship of Dr. Yi Eve Sun at UCLA.  As a graduate student her thesis work primarily centered on the study of the epigenetic changes occurring on the Bdnf gene in response to neuronal activity. Upon completion of her doctoral studies in 2006, she began postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) as a joint fellow with Drs. Husseini Manji and Bai Lu. Her decision to work as a joint fellow at NIMH came from a sincere interest in continuing to study the neuronal function of BDNF in the context of understanding its role in the etiology of complex neuropsychiatric diseases.

Dr. Neigh attended Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in biology in 1998.  Shortly after graduation she began work on her doctorate in neuroscience at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  Dr. Neigh trained in the laboratories of A. Courtney DeVries, Ph.D. and Randy J. Nelson, Ph.D. in psychoneuroendocrinology, neuroimmunology, and cerebral vascular biology.  After completion of her Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2004, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia to complete an NIH funded fellowship in developmental neurobiology studying the link between cardiovascular disease and depression with Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D.  Dr. Neigh is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences in the Emory University School of Medicine and a member of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience.  She is currently funded by a NARSAD Young Investigator’s Award and an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant.

Dr. Kalmane Sridhara Pavitra is a young psychiatrist who has been practicing at Shimoga, Karnataka, India.  Dr. Pavitra has received her M.D in psychiatry from National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore.  She also has a master degree in Bharatanatyam - Indian Classical dance form.

Her areas of research and interest have been Creativity and mental health, neuropsychiatry, psychopharmacology and Women’s’ mental health. She has been the Recipient of Marfatia award (2007) by Indian Psychiatric Society, Balint award (2008) by Indian association for social psychiatry, Dr.G.C.Boral-2 award (2009) by Indian association for social psychiatry, Dr.IRS Reddy award by Indian association of private psychiatry (2009), Japanese society of psychiatry and neurology young psychiatrist award for the year 2009 - all given for different original research papers. Dr. Pavitra apart from serving as a consultant psychiatrist in Sridhar Neuropsychiatric centre also has been working on community-oriented projects in the areas of women's mental health and clinical psychopharmacology.

Li Yang did her M.D. in 2001 and PhD in 2004 in Psychiatry and Mental Health in the Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, investigating the diagnosis, comorbidity, phenotype, medication and pharmacogenetics of ADHD. Since 2004, she has been working at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health Research Unit of PKU IMH on molecular genetics, pharmacogenomics and neuropsychology research. Her pharmacogenetic work has focused on the associated genes of methylphenidate response in ADHD children, including the NET, DAT1, MAO, and COMT. She was the first one who reported the A/A genotype of NET G1287A as the predictor of poor methylphenidate response, which was also implied in a later genome wide association study in the United States. She has pparticipated in more than ten important national research projects, and now is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (30800302). Li Yang has totally published more than 30 papers, in which 10 was done as the first author, including 4 SCI cited, and one on the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She was awarded the Science and Technology Price from Chinese Medical Association for the Systemic and Comprehensive Research of ADHD in 2005.