UC San Francisco psychiatrist and neuroscientist Vikaas Sohal, MD, PhD, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 A.E. Bennett Basic Research Award by the Society of Biological Psychiatry. He will be presented with the award, given annually in recognition of superb international research in biological psychiatry by young investigators, during the society's virtual annual meeting later this spring.
Sohal is an associate professor and deputy vice chair for research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as a member of the UCSF Dolby Family Center for Mood Disorders, UCSF Neuroscience Graduate Program, and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. Since coming to UCSF in 2010, his lab has studied emergent patterns of activity in the brain and their contributions to information processing and behavior in normal cognition and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, anxiety, and depression.
The Society of Biological Psychiatry was founded in 1945 to emphasize the medical and scientific study and treatment of mental disorders. Its purpose is to foster scientific research and education and to raise the level of knowledge and comprehension in the field of psychiatry. It is the oldest neuropsychiatry research society in America, currently made up of over 1,500 members from across United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Members do research in areas spanning from basic cellular studies to clinical trials and prevention research.
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About UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care, and public service.
UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital; UCSF Medical Centers at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay, and Mount Zion; UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; the San Francisco VA Health Care System; UCSF Fresno; and numerous community-based sites around the San Francisco Bay Area.
About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.
The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
About UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.
