(Vienna, 16 June 2025) Siegfried Kasper, long-standing Head of MedUni Vienna's Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, has been honoured by the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) with the "Pioneer Award" and the Nobel Prize Laureate Arvid Carlsson Medal for his life's work. This award honours individuals who have made important contributions to the development of the field and are internationally recognised as significant to the growth of the discipline.
Kasper was presented with the award during an academic ceremony at the World Congress of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) in Melbourne/Australia on 15 June 2025 for his achievements in research into neuropsychopharmacology and the biological causes of psychiatric disorders and their treatments.
About the person
Siegfried Kasper is professor emeritus and former full professor of psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Medical University of Vienna. He specialises in psychiatry and neurology and is a psychotherapist (psychoanalysis). Born in Salzburg in 1950, he studied at the universities of Innsbruck, Freiburg and Heidelberg. After completing his specialist training and psychotherapeutic training at the Mannheim Clinical Centre of the University of Heidelberg and the Training Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in Heidelberg, he completed a two-year research stay at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda/USA and then worked as a senior consultant at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Bonn.
In 1993, he was appointed Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vienna and retired in 2019. Kasper continues to work in translational research at MedUni Vienna's Center for Brain Research in the Department of Molecular Neurosciences. Kasper is the most frequently cited Austrian psychiatrist in scientific articles.
Siegfried Kasper has been awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria, the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class, the Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Province of Vienna and numerous other national and international awards.