Program
Invited Keynote Speakers
Professor Siegfried Kasper, MD
President WFSBP
World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry
Professor and Chair
Department of General Psychiatry
Medical University Vienna, Austria
Professor Charles Nemeroff, MD PhD
Laboratory of Neuropsychopharmacology
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Emory University School of Medicine, USA
Professor Ron de Kloet
The Division of Medical Pharmacology
Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, Leiden University Medical Center
Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
Professor Brian Leonard
Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology
National University of Ireland, Ireland
Program Outline
Thursday, 11 October 2007
10:30 - 12:30 - Registration Opens
13:30 - 15:30 - Symposia
15:30 - 16:00 - Afternoon Tea
16:00 - 17:00 - Keynote Address - Professor Siegfried Kasper
17:00 - 18:00 - Free Communication Sessions
19:00 - 20:00 - Welcome Reception
Friday, 12 October 2007
09:00 - 10:00 - Keynote Address - Professor Ron de Kloet
10:00 - 10:30 - Morning Tea
10:30 - 12:30 - Symposia
12:30 - 13:30 - Lunch & Posters
13:30 - 15:30 - Symposia
15:30 - 16:00 - Afternoon Tea
16:00 - 17:00 - Keynote Address - Professor Charles Nemeroff
17:00 - 18:00 - Free Communication Sessions
Saturday, 13 October 2007
09:00 - 10:00 - Keynote Address - Professor Brian Leonard
10:00 - 10:30 - Morning Tea
10:30 - 12:30 - Free Communication Sessions
12:30 - 13:30 - Posters
Professor Siegfried Kasper, MD
Keynote Address: Are we about to uncover the biological basis of mental disorders?
Dr Siegfried Kasper is Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman of the Department of General Psychiatry at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. Born in Salzburg, Austria, he was educated at the medical schools of the University of Innsbruck, Austria and the Universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg, Germany. Dr Kasper gained clinical and research experience in psychiatry at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany, the Psychiatric Department of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, the Clinical Psychobiology Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland/USA, and the Psychiatric Department of the University of Bonn, Germany; in neurology at the Neurological Department of the University of Heidelberg in Mannheim; and psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic training at the Ausbildungsinstitut für Psychotherapie und Psychoanalyse in Heidelberg/Mannheim, Germany.
Dr Kasper has authored over 800 research reports and reviews. He concentrates on the biological bases of mental disorders and their possible treatment approaches. Furthermore, he has conducted studies in psychopathological as well as clinical areas. Dr Kasper is a frequent national and international speaker and continues to be actively involved in research programmes studying depression, anxiety, psychosis, and dementia.
Dr Kasper serves on the executive committees and advisory boards of several national and international societies, such as the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) and the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP). He is president of the Austrian Society of Drug Safety in Psychiatry (ÖAMSP) and past-president of the Austrian Society of Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry (ÖGPB). Furthermore, he is an honorary member of the Czech and Romanian Societies of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Hungarian Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK, as well as of the Ukrainian Association of Psychiatry. In 1997, he was the president of the 10th ECNP Congress, was the chairman of the local organizing committee of the WPA Thematic Conference in 2004 and is the co-chair of the local organizing committee of the WFSBP Congress 2005 in Vienna.
Furthermore, he has recently been appointed honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong, China. Dr Kasper has been elected as president of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) for the term 2005-2009.
Dr Kasper serves on the editorial boards of numerous learned journals, including European Archives of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, European Psychiatry, and European Neuropsychopharmacology. He is co-editorin-chief of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice.
As a result of his research expertise he is involved in projects of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is also an adviser to the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA).
Professor Charles Nemeroff, MD, PhD
Keynote Address: The Neurobiological Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect: Increased Vulnerability for Depression in Adulthood
Dr Nemeroff was born in New York City in 1949 and educated in the New York City Public School System. After graduating from the City College of New York in 1970, he enrolled in graduate school at Northeastern University and received a Master's degree in Biology in 1973. He received his MD and PhD (Neurobiology) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His residency training in psychiatry was conducted at both the University of North Carolina and at Duke University, after which he joined the faculty of Duke University. At Duke he was Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Chief of the Division of Biological Psychiatry before relocating in 1991 to Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is the Reunette W. Harris Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. His research has concentrated on the biological basis of the major neuropsychiatric disorders, including affective disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. His clinical research has recently focused on the use of neuroendocrine, neuroimaging and neurochemical methods to elucidate the pathophysiology of depression. In recent years he has sought to determine the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate the increased risk for depression in individuals who were victims of child abuse. He has also contributed to the burgeoning area of research concerning the relationship of depression to cardiovascular disease.
Dr Nemeroff has received numerous honors during his career, including the A.E. Bennett Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry (1979), the Judith Silver Memorial Young Scientist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1989), both the Kempf Award in Psychobiology (1989) and the Samuel Hibbs Award (1990) from the American Psychiatric Association, and the Gold Medal Award and the Research Prize (1996) from the Society of Biological Psychiatry. In 1993 he was awarded the Edward J. Sachar Award from Columbia University and the Edward A. Strecker Award from the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1997, he was the recipient of the Gerald Klerman Award from the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Disorders Association and Selo Prize from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression. In 1998 he was the recipient of the Research Award in Mood disorders from the American College of Psychiatrists and in 1999 he received the Bowis Award from the same organization. He was awarded the Menniger Prize in 2000 from the American College of Physicians, the Research Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in 2001, and the Burlingame Prize from the Institute of Living in 2002. Dr Nemeroff is the Editor-in-Chief of Neuropsychopharmacology. With Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, he is the co-Editor of the Textbook of Psychopharmacology, now in its Third Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association Press. He has served on the Mental Health Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Biomedical Research Council for NASA. He is the past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American College of Psychiatrists. In 2002 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine.
He is currently the recipient of several research grants from the NIH, including a Conte Center for the Neurobiology of Major Mental Disorders, and has published more than 750 research reports and reviews.
Professor Ron de Kloet
Keynote Address: Stress: A Neuroendocrine Perspective
Ron de Kloet , Professor of Medical Pharmacology, Leiden University, The Netherlands is interested in the neuroendocrinology of stress and adaptation.
Ron published more than 500 articles on the topic and 5 books.
He received the 2007 Award of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the 2005 Geoffrey Harris Award of the European Federation of Endocrine Societies. In 2004 he was awarded the prestigious Academy Professorship of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the highest scientific accolades in The Netherlands.
Professor Brian Leonard
Keynote Address: Stress, depression and neurodegeneration
Professor Brian Leonard is the Past President of the CINP and maintains an active research group at the University of Maastricht in The Netherlands. His current major research interest is in the role of immune processes and cytokines in depression and dementia. In a research career spanning more than 35 years Professor Leonard has both industrial experience as well as a long standing academic career. He has supervised numerous MSc, PhD and MD candidates in the area of stress, anxiety and depression. His seminal textbook Fundamentals of Psychopharmacology now in its third edition provides one of the most lucid explanations of the field for both undergraduate and postgraduate students available.