René S. Kahn, MD, PhD, Appointed Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai
René S. Kahn, MD, PhD, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). Dr. Kahn, an internationally renowned expert on the neurobiology of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, will join the School on January 1, 2017.
Dr. Kahn is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Brain Center Rudolf Magnus at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands; he served as Chair of Psychiatry at Utrecht for more than 20 years and has held the Brain Center Directorship since 2002. The ISMMS Psychiatry Chairmanship marks Dr. Kahn’s return to Mount Sinai after more than two decades. After completing a four-year psychiatry residency at The Mount Sinai Hospital, he was appointed to the ISMMS faculty in 1992, where he has maintained an adjunct appointment in order to continue collaborations with Mount Sinai faculty.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Kahn back to Mount Sinai, knowing that he brings a unique expertise to the Department of Psychiatry,” said Mount Sinai President and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth L. Davis, MD. “He will be a tremendous mentor for the next generation of psychiatrists, neuroscience researchers and health policymakers here in line with our goal of providing excellent, efficient behavioral health care to all who need it.”
Dr. Kahn’s recent research interests include neuroimaging in schizophrenia and the genetic dissection of complex traits in specific psychiatric disorders. Dr. Kahn’s research has been supported by many international grants, and he has served on neuroscience grant review boards in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany. He has authored or co-authored more than 800 research papers, and sits on multiple prestigious editorial boards.
“Dr. Kahn’s outstanding research dovetails with efforts throughout the Mount Sinai Health System and presents exciting opportunities for collaborative research across our academic departments,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Kahn back into the Mount Sinai community, and his contribution will go beyond Psychiatry as he enlivens collaborations with departments across the health system such as Neuroscience, Genetics and Genomics and Population Health Science,” said Dr. Charney, who is also President for Academic Affairs for the Health System.
Dr. Kahn earned his MD from the University of Groningen School of Medicine and his PhD from Utrecht University, both in the Netherlands. Recent honors include membership in the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Science; the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Neuropsychopharmacology Award; an honorary doctorate at Semmelweis University in Budapest; inclusion in Thomson Reuters’ list of highly cited researchers, representing ”some of the world’s most influential scientific minds”; and the lifetime achievement award of the Dutch Psychiatric Association. He is also an Honorary Lifetime Professor at Jilin University in Changchun, China.
Dr. Kahn has held multiple leadership roles in ECNP, and is currently the past President of the Schizophrenia International Research Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
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