Home

Professor Michael Berk

Professor Michael Berk is currently appointed as Chair of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, Deakin University.  He also is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and the Mental Health Research Institute, and leads the first episode bipolar program at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre. He is immediate past President of the International Society of Bipolar Disorders, and Chairman of the Australasian Society of Bipolar Disorders. He has published over 350 papers on a range of topics with his research interests focusing on mood and psychotic disorders, particularly bipolar disorder and depression. His greatest contribution to the field is in the discovery and implementation of novel therapies. He has published over 20 self-initiated, non-industry randomised controlled trials, predominantly in bipolar disorder. He is a past committee member of both the Collegium Internationale Psychopharmacologicum and World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry and is a member of a number of international advisory boards. He was the founding editor of The Journal of Depression and Anxiety, is associate editor of both the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry and Early Intervention in Psychiatry, has served as guest editor or is on the editorial board of 12 other journals as well as being a reviewer of 30 journals.

 
Prof Berk is the recipient of a number of grants, including a NHMRC CCRE and 3 NHMRC project grants, two beyondblue grants and two Stanley Medical Research Institute awards and is a lead investigator on the CRE for Mental Health. He is regularly invited as a speaker at international meetings. In 2008, he was awarded the Australasian Society of Psychiatric Research Eli Lilly Oration, the Pathcare Smart Geelong Research and Learning Expo Health and Lifestyle award and the G Force Recruitment Researcher of the Year award for his work, and in 2009 received a commendation in the Ministers Award for Mental Health. Since relocating to Australia in 2001, he has established a new research unit at Barwon Health, which now has 15 researchers and 6 students engaged in 33 projects, multiple local, national and international collaborations, as well as heading a clinical Professorial Unit at the Geelong Clinic.
Research Interests: 

bipolar disorder, depression