International Speakers
Prof Valsamma Eapen (Australia)
Eapen is a Scientia Professor & Chair of Child Psychiatry at University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and Head of the Clinical Academic Unit at South-Western Sydney Health District. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Leadership Fellow and has been inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS). She is known internationally for her clinical and research expertise in Neurodevelopmental disorders including Tourette Syndrome and related disorders. She is Director of an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in child and family health focussing on research into neurodevelopmental and child mental health disorders. Eapen is President, International Neuropsychiatric Association; Board member, World Psychiatric Association; and Chair, Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry. She has >500 publications and is currently part of research programs totalling >40 million in funding.
Prof Andrea Cipriani (UK)
Andrea Cipriani is Professor of Psychiatry and NIHR Research Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Lead of the Bipolar Disorder Research Clinic. His main interest in psychiatry is evidence-based mental health and his research focuses on the evaluation of treatments in psychiatry, mainly major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. His research in the methodology of evidence synthesis has now a specific focus on data science and precision mental health, trying to assess the validity, breadth, structure and interpretation of innovative statistical and machine learning approaches to better inform the decision-making process between patients and clinicians and personalise treatment in routine clinical care (PETRUSHKA Trial). Professor Cipriani is currently the Director of the NIHR Oxford Health Clinical Research Facility, Director of the Global Alliance for Living Evidence in Depression, Anxiety and Psychosis (GALENOS Project), Lead of the Oxford Precision Psychiatry Lab and Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Mental Health.
Prof Peter Falkai (Germany)
Professor Peter Falkai has been working in the field of psychiatry for over 30 years. His main research interest is focused on the neurobiology of psychotic disorders, namely schizophrenia. He has been member of various international and German scientific societies, such as the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS). 2021 – 2023 he was president of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), and he is currently president of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP). Prof. Falkai has been leading multidisciplinary teams of researchers, whose clinical and research expertise focus continuously on the neurobiological origins and pathomorphological aspects as well as on causal treatment options of psychotic disorders. He is one of 17 LMU researchers among Clarivate's most successful “Highly Cited Researchers”.
Prof Naomi Fineberg (UK)
Naomi Anne Fineberg is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Hertfordshire, and a Consultant Psychiatrist at Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, where she leads the NHS England Highly Specialised Service for Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders. She is President Elect of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, co-chairs the World Psychiatric Association Anxiety & Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Scientific Section and coordinates the Horizon Europe Bootstrap consortium investigating problematic usage of the Internet. Professor Fineberg has a substantial track record in the investigation of the neurobiology and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorders and behavioural addiction including problematic usage of the Internet. She is Editor in Chief of Comprehensive Psychiatry.
Prof Perminder Sachdev (Australia)
Perminder Sachdev AM MBBS MD FRANZCP PhD FAHMS is Scientia Professor of Neuropsychiatry, Co-Director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW Sydney, Clinical Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI) at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, and Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Vascular Contributions to Dementia. He is deputy-director of the Australian Dementia Network. His major areas of research are drug-induced movement disorders, brain imaging, cognitive ageing and dementia, especially vascular cognitive impairment. He has published over 1000 peer-reviewed journal papers and 7 books, including one for lay readers (The Yipping Tiger and other tales from the neuropsychiatric clinic) and a book of poems (A migrant’s musings). He was named NSW Scientist of the year for Biomedical Sciences in 2010. In 2011, he was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to medical research. He was awarded the Ryman Prize in 2022 by an international jury for the most significant contributions world-wide toward the health of older people. In 2024, he was invited to deliver the Lishman Oration by the International Neuropsychiatric Association. In 2025, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Australian Dementia Research Forum.
Prof Jeremy Schmahmann (USA)
INA Cajal Oration Awardee -
https://inawebsite.org/awards/the-ramon-y-cajal-award/
Dr. Schmahmann is the Martha and Robert Fogelman Endowed Chair in Ataxia and Cerebellar Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston where he is Founding Director of the Ataxia Center, a Center of Excellence of the National Ataxia Foundation and Mission MSA and a lead site for ataxia clinical trials in the United States. He is a founding member of the MGH Division of Behavioral Neurology, Director of the Schmahmann Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, past president of the Boston Society of Neurology and Psychiatry and the American Neuropsychiatric Association, and a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Schmahmann received his medical degree with distinction at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, completed residency in the Neurological Unit of the Boston City Hospital, and postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Deepak Pandya in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, American Neurological Association, and American Neuropsychiatric Association. His clinical and research interests focus on the anatomical substrates of intellect and emotion, white matter pathways of the brain, and the clinical neurology, neuropsychiatry, and systems neuroscience of the cerebellum. He described the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome, eponymously named Schmahmann’s syndrome. Awards include the Norman Geschwind Prize for Behavioral Neurology Research, Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Society for Cognitive Behavioral Neurology and the National Ataxia Foundation, Distinguished Neurology Teacher Award from the American Neurological Association, and MGH’s Raymond D. Adams Mentor of the Year Award. He has been listed in The Best Doctors in America since 1996, is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, has delivered Visiting Professorships worldwide, and has over 350 publications and 6 books.
Congress Speakers
Dr Niruj Agrawal (UK)
Niruj Agrawal is a Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at Atkinson Morley Regional Neurosciences Centre, St George’s Hospital, London and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at City St George’s, University of London. He was the lead clinician for the Regional Neuropsychiatry service for 18 years. He led development of regional functional neurological disorder service, developing new group treatments. He has particular interest in the neuropsychiatric consequences of traumatic brain injuries, neuropsychiatric disorders associated with neurological illnesses and functional neurological disorders. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (FRCPsych) and is ex vice chair of the Faculty of Neuropsychiatry (FoN) at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is a member of the Examinations Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists involved in setting and monitoring of theory and clinical postgraduate exams in Psychiatry (MRCPsych) in the UK. He is on the executive committee of the Faculty of Neuropsychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is the Chair of the UK Neuropsychiatry Medico-legal Group. His research interests include functional neurological disorders, depression in neurological disorders, neuropsychiatric conditions in neurological settings and neuropsychiatric service provision. He has published over 120 international peer reviewed papers and book chapters. He is on the editorial boards of BJPsych Open and BJPsych Bulletin. He is the lead co-editor the Oxford Textbook of Neuropsychiatry (2020) and Essential Neuroscience for Psychiatrists (RCPsych and Cambridge University Press, 2025). He is the lead co-editer of the Oxford Textbook of TBI which will be published in September 2026. He also works as a neuropsychiatry medico-legal expert in civil cases in the areas of personal injury and medical negligence. He receives instructions from the claimants as well as defendants.