Biography

Danuta Wasserman (DW) is a Univ. Prof. Dr. Med. in Psychiatry and Suicidology at Karolinska Institutet (KI), and the current Director and Founding Head of the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP) at KI, since 1993. DW is appointed as the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research, Methods Development and Training in Suicide Prevention since 1997 until July 2024 and assists in the development of suicide preventive research and suicide preventive programs on five continents. She is the former President of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) and the International Academy of Suicide Research (IASR). She is serving on the Guideance Committee of the EPA of the Evidence Based Clinical Methods. In October 2020 DW was elected as the President-Elect of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), incoming as President in 2023 – 2026. Professor Wasserman is the Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK, Honorary Member of the Hungarian, Polish and Romanian Psychiatric Associations and Honorary President of Estonian Swedish Mental Health Institutet. DW has won numerous national and international honours and awards, including the Public Health Prize from the Nordic Council of Ministers of Health for the outstanding contribution to public mental health research and prevention, the Distinguished Research Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Research (AFSP), the Hans Rost Prize from the German Association for Suicide Prevention for the outstanding contribution to suicide research and prevention, the Stengel Research Award for outstanding contributions in the field of suicide research and prevention from the International Association for Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention (IASP), and Morselli Medal from the International Academy for Suicide Research (IASR) and from the British Medical Association (BMC) Board of Science Award for the Public Understanding of Science for her book Depression: the facts published by Oxford University Press. DW is the author of numerous scientific articles, reports and book chapters. She is the editor of the Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention: A Global Perspective, published by Oxford University Press in 2009 and 2021. Her comprehensive book for busy clinicians and the broad audience interested in suicide prevention “Suicide an unnecessary death” published by Martin Dunitz (2001), has been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Russian and updated for a new edition by the Oxford University Press (2016). DW’s research activities comprise epidemiological, psychodynamic and genetic studies of suicidal behaviours. In 2009, she received the honour from the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Photo: David Gimlin Page 2/2 Institutet, to organize the “Nobel Conference on the role of genetics in promoting suicide prevention and the mental health of the population.” Summary of the whole conference was published in a special issue of European Psychiatry, 2010;25(5):249-310. She was responsible for organizing several national and international conferences in psychiatry and suicidology. DW is the Principle Investigator for two large-scale European randomized controlled trials (RCT), “Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE)” and “Working in Europe to Stop Truancy Among Youth (WE-STAY),” assessing the effectiveness of different intervention approaches and prevention strategies for adolescents. Both RCTs are funded with €3 million each by the European Union (EU). DW leads also a large RCT in Sweden involving 163 schools, with the aim to test the effectiveness of the mental health promoting, Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) program in comparison to a control group. DW is the Swedish site-coordinator of the NEVERMIND project (NEurobehavioral predictiVE and peRsonalized Modeling of depressIve symptoms duriNg primary somatic Disorders through ICT-enabled, self management procedures) and POTION (Promoting social interaction through emotional body odours), both funded by the EU in the Horizon 2020 framework program during 2017 - 2024. She also is a part of the EU funded project Extended-Personal Reality: augmented recording and transmission of virtual senses through artificial-Intelligence (EXPERIENCE) until 2024. Since 2021 DW leads a global COVID-19 BIC project to prevent suicide together with the WPA, supported by the European Investment Bank. Since 2000, she serves as the Principle Investigator for the Genetic Investigation of Suicide and Attempted Suicide Project (GISS project), funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Research Foundation in Sweden. DW serves as a consultant to the mental health promotion and suicide preventive studies among youth to several universities in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and to Montana State University, Texas University and Columbia University in the United States. Professor Wasserman is also the chair and a member of several national and international working groups on mental health promotion and suicide prevention.