UAB to award an honorary doctorate to Germán E. Berríos

Germán Elías Berríos, emeritus professor of Psychiatric Epistemology at University of Cambridge and renowned specialist in clinical psychiatry, psychopathology and history of psychiatry, will be awarded an honorary doctorate by UAB today at noon at the Josep Marull Hall of Hospital del Mar in Barcelona. Antoni Bulbena, professor of UAB Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine, will be the sponsor of the honorary doctor. The ceremony can be watched online.

19/05/2010

The University wishes to acknowledge the work of professor Berríos who throughout his professional career has maintained an admirable conjunction of clinical, teaching and research excellence. Descriptive psychopathology, conceptual history of psychiatry and complications in neurological disorders are the main areas of his research. Over the years, Berríos has published more than 400 papers and 14 books. The History of Mental Symptoms received the award for best book on mental health from the British Medical Association in 1997.

The ceremony will begin with an opening speech by Rector Ana Ripoll. Following the speech Isabel Pont, Secretary General, will read out the approval by the Governing Council. Dr Antoni Bulbena, sponsor of the honorary doctor, will pay tribute to Berríos' career. Rector Ana Ripoll will then award the UAB diploma and medal. The new honorary doctorate will then offer a master lecture on the history and epistemology of psychiatry as hybrid objects, entitled "Objectes híbrids en psiquiatria: història i epistemologia". The ceremony will end with a closing speech by Rector Ana Ripoll and the performance of Gaudeamus igitur by the UAB Choir.

A prestigious historian of psychiatry
Born in the Peruvian region of Tacna in 1940, Berríos began his academic and professional career as a surgeon at the University of Marcos in Lima, where he earned his PhD in Human Medicine in 1985. Doctor in Philosophy and Humanities by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, he is currently emeritus professor of Psychiatric Epistemology at Cambridge. He is a Life Fellow of Robinson College, and Fellow of the British Psychological Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is editor of the international journal History of Psychiatry.

Until 2007 and for 31 years, he was head of the Neuropsychiatric Service of Cambridge University. He has also been president of the Research and Ethics Committee and the Committee of Psychological Medicine at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

Most recent recognitions to his clinical, academic and research career include the awarding of an honorary doctorate by the universities of Heidelberg, Germany and San Marcos, Peru, as well as the creation of the "Germán Berríos" Chair in Psychopathology at the universities of Antioquia, Colombia, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was awarded the Order of the Sun (Class: Grand Officer) and the Ramon y Cajal Award by the International Neuropsychiatric Association. In 2009 he was made Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists of the UK.