Renowned psychiatrist and researcher joins SCS

Renowned psychiatrist and researcher Vaughan Carr has joined the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Clinical Sciences as Adjunct Professor of Youth Psychiatry and Consulting Psychiatrist with Youth Services, Monash Health.

An outstanding academic within the discipline of psychiatry, Vaughan’s current scholarship includes a longitudinal cohort study of 87,000 Australian children to map mental health outcomes and the establishment of the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank, a biobank of genetic, clinical and cognitive data of over 2400 individuals.

In taking up an appointment with the School of Clinical Sciences, Vaughan will teach our medical students and trainee psychiatrists, and be available to supervise higher degree students.

Most recently, Vaughan was Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of Schizophrenia Epidemiology at the University of New South Wales, and Chief Executive Officer & Scientific Director of the Schizophrenia Research Institute. 

He has a career total of over 180 publications spanning genetic, neurobiological, cognitive, clinical, and psychosocial investigations of schizophrenia, and has participated in two national surveys of psychosis prevalence in Australia.

In the last 10 years, he has been a Chief Investigator on 45 research grants, which have been awarded over $14.5 million in funding. Of these, 20 were Category 1 research grants, which were awarded $9.6 million in funding. His H-index is 45 (Google), 36 (Scopus).

Vaughan is the recipient of several significant awards including the Australian Society for Psychiatric Research Organon Prize for Psychoneuroendocrinology in 1987, and in 2003 the Society’s Novartis Oration award. In 2006, he was awarded the Founders’ Medal by the Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research; and in 2012 he was awarded the Chad Buckle Fellowship in New Zealand.

He has made a number of significant contributions to university education and research in the past 10 years. From 1999 to 2006, he established and became the founding Director of the Centre for Mental Health Studies (CMHS) in Newcastle. In 2006, the CMHS was expanded to include basic neuroscientists, neurologists and cognitive neuroscientists, and became the Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research (designated as a Priority Research Centre of the University of Newcastle). 

Vaughan was appointed its founding Director, and it administered a program of research under the auspices of the Hunter Medical Research Institute and the University of Newcastle; it continues now as the Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health.

Vaughan’s scholarship is recognised internationally and he reviews for many top tier journals in psychiatry. He has been an active reviewer and panel member for NHMRC; served on the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee of the Therapeutic Goods Administration; and served on editorial boards for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, and Schizophrenia Research and Treatment.

He comes to Monash with outstanding references attesting to the scope of his scholarship, excellence of clinical care, strength of leadership, and generous capacity to mentor early career clinicians. His eminence is beyond doubt as a scholar of high distinction, whose appointment to Monash University will bring considerable academic strengthening.

Vaughan Carr graduated M.B., B.S. in 1972 from the University of Adelaide; M.D., 1988 University of Adelaide; F.R.C.P.C. 1978 ,Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada; F.R.A.N.Z.C.P. 1980, Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.