Rodrigo Machado-Vieira, MD, PhD, MSc, is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Experimental Therapeutics and Molecular Pathophysiology Program at the University of Texas, UTHealth, Houston. He was previously at the Intramural National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where he was the Director of the Translational Research Clinic in Mood Disorders at the Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch. Machado-Vieira received his MD from PUC-RS in Porto Alegre, Brazil and his PhD in Psychiatry at the University of Sao Paulo, following his Residency Training in Psychiatry. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology and Experimental Therapeutics at NIMH, he led the Mood Disorders Program, LIM-27 at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Machado-Vieira has received several grants and Awards for his research on Mood Disorders including the National Institutes of Health Fellows Award for Research Excellence, the Brazilian Psychiatric Association Award, the Gerald Klerman Young Investigator Award, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), Sao Paulo Young Investigator Research Award, and the Stanley Medical Research Institute Research Award. He was Chair of the Nominating Committee of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD). Dr. Machado-Vieira published more than 200 articles published and over 12,500 citations.
Dr. Jair C. Soares joined UTHealth in 2009 as Professor and Chair of the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Pat R. Rutherford, Jr. Chair in Psychiatry at the McGovern Medical School, as well as the Executive Director of UTHealth Harris County Psychiatric Center. A Board-certified psychiatrist, he also serves as Chief of Psychiatry Services at Memorial Hermann Hospital and LBJ Hospital. The sites provide patient care and are clinical training and research facilities for UTHealth medical students, psychiatry residents and psychiatry fellows.
Dr. Soares directs the UTHealth Center of Excellence on Mood Disorders, which focuses on the search for causes and the development of new treatments for mood disorders. The Center is comprised of an active research team that specializes in clinical neurosciences (neuroimaging, neurophysiology, cognitive neurosciences, and genetics) and clinical psychopharmacology and interventions research.
Dr. Soares received his medical degree from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and completed a general psychiatry residency at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. Subsequently, Dr. Soares completed a brain imaging fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. He obtained a PhD in medical sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).
Prior to joining UTHealth, Dr. Soares served as the Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Center of Excellence for Research and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and as Deputy Chair for Research and Division Chief for Mood and Anxiety Disorders with the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Dr. Soares has published more than 350 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the psychiatric literature and has held editorial positions on a number of national and international medical journals. His research has been funded over the years by multiple grants from NIH, VA, private foundations and the pharmaceutical industry. Since April 2015, he has been the co-editor in chief for the Journal of Affective Disorders. Since 2018, he has served as president of the International Society on Affective Disorders. He also is co-editor in chief for a new spin-off publication, Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, which was launched in 2020. Currently he serves as president-elect for the American Association for Chairs of Academic Departments of Psychiatry. He also serves in the finance committee and in the travel award committee for the International Society for Clinical Trials Methodology (ISCTM).
