Homan Lab Zurich

Mental health research

Prof. Philipp Homan, MD, PhD. Principal investigator

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Philipp is a member of the medical faculty at the University of Zurich and Deputy Director of the University Hospital of Psychiatry, where he also serves as Chief Physician (Stv. Klinikdirektor und Chefarzt). He chairs Fachbereich 4 (Clinical Neurosciences and Psychiatry) within the faculty and leads the Homan-Lab at the Neuroscience Center Zurich.

Philipp studied business and computer science at the Technical University and medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. He completed his residency in psychiatry with Werner Strik and earned a PhD in clinical neuroscience with Thomas Dierks at the University of Bern, where he also led the Brain Stimulation Unit as attending physician. He then spent several years in New York, first as a postdoctoral fellow with Daniela Schiller at Mount Sinai, and later as faculty at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and the Zucker School of Medicine. He returned to Switzerland to take up his current clinical and academic roles in Zurich.

His research combines theory- and data-driven approaches to the study of severe mental illness, particularly psychosis. His group integrates cognitive neuroscience and data science to study language, thought, and decision processes in psychiatric disorders. Philipp serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including the British Journal of Psychiatry and BMC Medicine. His work is supported by the European Research Council (ERC).

Recent preprints and publications

Editorials and essays

  • Homan 2023, MERKUR [link]
  • Homan & Kane 2018, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica [link]
  • Homan & Schiller 2016, Current Biology [link]

Media and outreach

Honors, awards, fellowships

  • 09/2022: Editorial Board Member, BMC Medicine
  • 04/2020: Research Grant from the Novartis Foundation, Switzerland
  • 04/2020: Travel Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry (SOBP), USA
  • 04/2020: Associate Editor, British Journal of Psychiatry
  • 03/2020: EPA Research Prize from the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), France
  • 10/2019: Editorial Board Member, British Journal of Psychiatry
  • 10/2019: Young Investigator Award from the Swiss Society of Biological Psychiatry (SSBP), Switzerland
  • 09/2019: NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF), USA
  • 03/2019: Young Investigator Award from the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP), Germany
  • 04/2018: Travel Award from the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS), USA
  • 05/2016: Poster Award from the Friedman Brain Institute at the 8th Annual Neurosciene Retreat, New York Academy of Medicine, USA
  • 06/2015: Advanced Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland (SNF 161077)
  • 11/2014: Hans Heimann Dissertation Award from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde (DGPPN), Germany
  • 09/2014: Frutiger Award from the Foundation Adrian and Simone Frutiger, Switzerland
  • 11/2011: Poster Award from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde (DGPPN), Germany

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