Thomas G. Schulze, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a leading researcher in the field of mood disorders, has been elected president-elect of the World Psychiatric Association. He will serve as president of the WPA from Fall 2026 to Fall 2029.

The WPA represents 250,000 psychiatrists from 145 psychiatric societies in 121 countries. The association promotes collaborative work in all areas of psychiatry. According to its website, “it has developed ethical guidelines for psychiatric practice and position statements on topics relevant to psychiatric practice and the role of psychiatrists.”

The WPA also presents various scientific meetings, among them the WPA World Congress of Psychiatry, well as regional and thematic congresses, attracting global leaders in mental health and providing forums for shared learning and collaboration

Schulze was appointed to the Upstate faculty in 2019; he also serves as director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics at Ludwig Maximillians-University (LUM) in Munich, Germany. He was instrumental in developing a Memorandum of Understanding between Upstate and LUM to foster international contact and student exchange.

Schulze’s research focuses on genotype-phenotype relationship in psychiatric disorders. He created the international Consortium of Lithium Genetics (www.ConLiGen.org), to study the genetic basis of response to lithium treatment in bipolar disorder comprising several research groups from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia.

Schulze’s honors and awards are numerous and include the Hamilton Award from the American Psychopathological Association and the Hans-Jorg-Weitbrecht Award for Clinical Neurosciences, one the most prestigious German awards for neuroscience. He was elected to the German Academy of Sciences in 2021.