Congratulations to Dr. Georgina Hosang on receiving the DBSA Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award!

Congratulations to CREST.BD member Dr. Georgina Hosang, who has just been awarded the 2022 Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award!

The Gerald L. Klerman Award is the highest honor that the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) gives to members of the scientific community. It is given annually to researchers whose work contributes to understanding the causes, symptoms, and therapies for depression and bipolar disorder. Georgina was presented with the award at the International Society for Bipolar Disorders conference in Chicago, in June 2023.

🌟So honoured to be recognised by @DBSAlliance for my work on #BipolarDisorder & #depression. I’m so grateful to stand on the shoulders of many fantastic people who have supported & uplifted me@QMULPsychiatry @QMUL_WIPH https://t.co/rAtrjKsq6t pic.twitter.com/8N82r39EPZ

— Dr Georgina M Hosang (@DrHosang) June 26, 2023

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance is the top peer-directed organisation for people with mood disorders in the United States. This organization aims to improve the lives of people with mood disorders through education, advocacy, support, and research. The DBSA facilitates more than 600 online and local peer-led support groups and has over 120 independent affiliated chapters.

This prestigious award is named after educator, researcher, clinician, and author Gerald L. Klerman. Dr. Klerman was head of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration from 1977-1980 and one of DBSA’s earliest supporters. He also conducted the first clinical trial showing the effectiveness of medication and psychotherapy for preventing depression.

I am absolutely delighted and honored to receive this year’s Gerald L. Klerman award, which is one of the highest accolades at my career stage. I have dedicated my career to better understanding the psychosocial origins of bipolar disorder, depression and related conditions with the aim of having a positive impact on the lives of those affected by these illnesses. So I am thrilled to be recognised by DBSA for this work and effort.

– Dr. Hosang

Dr. Hosang is also a recipient of the 2019 International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) Samuel Gershon Junior Investigator Award for her research exploring the link between bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Dr. Georgina Hosang

Dr Georgina Hosang is an Associate Professor at Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary, University of London (UK). Her interdisciplinary work focuses on the impact of life stress (childhood trauma and recent life events) on the onset and course (including physical health outcomes) of bipolar disorder and depression. She is also interested in the developmental pathway from adolescent hypomania to bipolar disorder using twin data.

Dr. Hosang as a panelist at CREST.BD’s World Bipolar Day Reddit “Ask Me Anything”

Dr Georgina Hosang completed her PhD in Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK and was then awarded the prestigious ESRC/MRC Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellowship. Between 2012 and 2017 she was an Assistant Professor at Middlesex University and Goldsmiths, University of London. She has been at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London, since 2017 where she is now an Associate Professor.

Dr Hosang’s interdisciplinary work focuses on the impact of life stress (childhood trauma and recent life events) on the onset and course (including physical health outcomes) of bipolar disorder and depression. For instance, she has conducted some of the first and only studies exploring the genetic and life stress interactions in bipolar disorder (Hosang et al., 2010; 2017). She published also one of the first papers showing that exposure to childhood maltreatment (abuse and neglect) considerably increases the odds of having multiple physical conditions for people with bipolar disorder (Hosang et al., 2018).

In recent years she has become interested in the developmental pathway from adolescent hypomania to bipolar disorder using twin data. Her work has shown that adolescent hypomania is distinct from ADHD (Hosang et al., 2019, JAMA Psychiatry) and is significantly related to the development of bipolar disorder (Hosang et al., 2022, JAMA Psychiatry). For this work she won the Samuel Gershon Junior Investigator prize awarded by the International Society of Bipolar Disorder in 2019. Dr Hosang’s research has been funded by a number of agencies including the UK’s Economic Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute of Health Research and the International Bipolar Foundation.

Dr Hosang is committed to equality diversity and inclusion in research and academia more widely, and is the co-chair of the Early and Mid-Career Committee at the International Society of Bipolar Disorder and the Race Equality Action Group at her host institution- Queen Mary, University of London.