Early Career Programme 2026
Workshop 1 | How to Fail at Lectures, Grants and Papers (or Not)
Duration: 2 Hours | Format: Lectures & Discussion
About this Workshop
The aim of this workshop is in a tongue in cheek manner two present pitfalls end traps in the three critical academic elements; lectures grant applications and papers. Three eminent academics will present on each of these topics. The first lecture will cover the topic of how to give a terrible lecture, the second will focus on tips and tricks to ensure your grant application fails, and the final lecture will focus on techniques to ensure that your academic manuscript is rejected. The expectation that this will both be humorous and informative.
Topics
How to give a terrible lecture
Common presentation pitfalls and how to avoid them
How to ensure your grant application fails
Tips and tricks to ensure your grant never gets funded
How to guarantee your paper is rejected
Techniques to ensure your manuscript is rejected
Learning objectives
Increase skills in lecturing, grant writing, and paper generation
Speakers
Prof. Michael Berk
Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, Deakin University, Australia
MB Professor Michael Berk is currently a NHMRC Leadership 3 research Fellow and is Deakin Distinguished Chair of Psychiatry at Deakin University and Barwon Health, where he heads the Institute for Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT).
He also is an Honorary Professorial Research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health and Orygen Youth Health at Melbourne University, as well as in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.
He has published over 1650 papers and is listed by Thompson Reuters ISI as highly cited (2015-2025).
His major interests are in the discovery and implementation of novel therapies.
Prof. Jee Hyun Kim
Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, Deakin University, Australia
Professor Jee Hyun KIM is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and the Head of Molecular Psychiatry Laboratory at the Institute of Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, Deakin University.
Jee studies the neurobiology of memory in mental disorders across development and ageing in rodents and humans, leading the mapping of dopamine receptors (DOPAMAP) across development in male and female mice in partnership with the Human Brain Project funded by European Union.
Jee has a strong translational focus, co-leading the Trimetazidine In bipolar DEpression (TIDE) clinical trial.
Jee has won numerous national and international awards for her ground-breaking work (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jee_Hyun_Kim), including the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) Young Investigator Award.
Jee has >120 publications, for which she is the corresponding author to >60. Citations are >5,000. Jee is an active science communicator, with her TEDxMelbourne talk reaching >800,000 views.
Prof. Dan Siskind
University of Queensland, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Science, Brisbane, Australia
Prof Siskind trained as a psychiatrist in Australia and the United States.
He works clinically as a psychiatrist in Brisbane, Australia with people with treatment refractory schizophrenia.
His research interests include treatment refractory schizophrenia, clozapine and the physical health comorbidities associated with schizophrenia.
He has over 300 publications and AU$60million in competitive research grants, with over AU$7 million as CIA.
Workshop 2 | Neuroscience for Psychiatrists: Foundations and Clinical Applications
Duration: 2 Hours | Format: Lectures & Discussion
About this Workshop
Advances in neuroscience over the past two decades have transformed our understanding of brain function and the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders. However, many early-career psychiatrists receive limited training in translating contemporary neuroscience concepts into clinical practice. This is a 2-hour workshop designed to provide a concise, clinically relevant overview of the neuroscience foundations of psychiatry. The session will introduce key principles of brain organization, neural circuits, neurotransmission, and neuroplasticity, and discuss how alterations in these systems contribute to major psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders. Emphasis will be placed on linking modern neuroscience concepts such as circuit-based models of psychopathology and multi-neurotransmitter interactions, to clinical phenomena and treatment mechanisms. Through focused lectures and illustrative clinical examples, the workshop aims to enhance neuroscience literacy among psychiatrists and mental health trainees and also to promote integration of contemporary neurobiological insights into diagnostic formulation and therapeutic decision-making.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Describe key principles of brain organization, neural circuits, neurotransmission, and neuroplasticity relevant to psychiatric practice.
Explain how disturbances in neural circuitry and neurochemical systems contribute to major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders.
Apply contemporary neuroscience concepts to clinical formulation and to understanding mechanisms of action of psychiatric treatments.
Speakers
Prof. Rajiv Tandon
Western Michigan University Homer Stryker College
of Medicine, USA
Rajiv Tandon, MD, is Professor and Chair Emeritus at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker College of Medicine.
An internationally recognized psychiatrist, educator, and researcher, he completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Michigan and went on to hold senior leadership positions including Chief of Psychiatry for the State of Florida and Professor/Vice-Chair at the University of Florida.
He has authored over 400 scientific publications and delivered more than 1,500 national and international presentations.
Dr. Tandon is Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Psychiatry, under which its impact has progressively increased, and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals.
He is a three-time recipient of the Schizophrenia Research highest-impact author award and has received over 20 national and international awards for research and teaching, including the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from NAMI on three occasions.
He was a member of the DSM-5 and DSM-5-TR workgroups on schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders and currently serves on the DSM-5-TR Review Committee for serious mental disorders.
He co-leads an international project on reconceptualizing schizophrenia involving 50 leading experts worldwide, and actively promotes psychiatric research and scientific publication across Asia.
Prof. Matcheri Keshavan
Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, USA
Matcheri Keshavan, MD, is Stanley R. Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.
He received his medical training in Mysore, India, and his psychiatric training in Bangalore, Vienna, London, and Detroit.
His research focuses on the neurobiology of psychosis, particularly first-episode psychotic disorders, as well as neuroimaging, cognitive remediation, and early intervention.
Dr. Keshavan has published around 1,030 works, including over 850 peer-reviewed papers and 4 books. With over 81,000 citations and a Google Scholar H-index of 143, he ranks among the top 1% of researchers in his field.
He has received numerous awards, including the Kempf Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the Stanley Dean Award, the NAMI National Research Award, and the WFSBP Research Award.
He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Psychiatrists (UK) and Physicians (Canada).
He is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Psychiatry and a former editor of Schizophrenia Research.
For list of publications, see: https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/17411