Janusz K. Rybakowski – Biographical Sketch

Prof. Janusz K. Rybakowski, MD, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Adult Psychiatry, Poznan University of Medical Sciences and since 2022, a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 1995-2016 he was the Head of the Department of Adult Psychiatry, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, in 1985-1995, the Chairman, the Department of Psychiatry, Medical Academy, Bydgoszcz, and in 1976-1977, the NIH Fogarty Research Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He was the President of the Polish Psychiatric Association, 1998-2001, a Board Member of the Association of European Psychiatrists, 1998-2004, a Board of Councillors Member, the International Society of Bipolar Disorders, 2003-2006, and a member of other international scientific associations such as International Neuropsychiatric Association, since 1999, European College of Neuro-Psychopharmacology (ECNP), since 1988, New York Academy of Sciences, since 1993, Society of Biological Psychiatry, since 2000, International Group for the Study of Lithium-Treated Patients (IGSLI), since 2000, International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, since 2002, Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP), since 2003, International Society of Affective Disorders, since 2004, and European Group for the Research in Schizophrenia (EGRIS), since 2005.

Prof. Rybakowski authored more than 600 scientific articles on clinical psychiatry, neurobiology and psychopharmacology. His main research issue has been the pathogenesis of mood disorders and the mechanism and clinical actions of lithium. He is the author of the books The Faces of Manic-Depressive Illness (2009) and Lithium – the Amazing Drug in Psychiatry (2020). Both books have Polish and Russian versions.

Prof. Rybakowski is President of the Board of the main Polish psychiatric Journal, Psychiatria Polska, since 2000; the Editor-in-Chief of both Farmakoterapia w Psychiatrii i Neurologii (Pharmacotherapy in Psychiatry and Neurology), since 2006, and Neuropsychiatria i Neuropsychologia (Neuropsychiatry and Neuropsychology),  since 2006.  He has been a member of the Editorial Board of many international journals, such as Lithium (1990-1994), Neuropsychobiology 1996-, Bipolar Disorders 2000-, Pharmacopsychiatry 2000-, Acta Neuropsychiatrica (2001- 2005), International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice 2005-, Cardiovascular Psychiatry and Neurology (2008-2017), World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, Field Editor, 2009-, Depression Research and Treatment, 2009-, Current Psychiatry Reports, 2011-, Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 2011-, Annals of General Psychiatry, 2011-, International Journal of Bipolar Disorders, 2012-, Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, 2014-, and Journal of Affective Disorders 2015-.

In 2012, Prof. Rybakowski received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the European Bipolar Forum, in 2015, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Biological Psychiatry from the World Federation of the Societies of Biological Psychiatry, and in 2018, the Mogens Schou scientific award from the International Society of Bipolar Disorders.

References:

Rybakowski J. The Faces of Manic-depressive Illness. Termedia; 2009.

Rybakowski J. Lithium – the Amazing Drug in Psychiatry. Termedia; 2020.