Profile
Professor Suresh Sundram is Chair and Head, Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University, Director of Research, Mental Health Program, Monash Health, and Clinical Director, Cabrini Outreach, Melbourne.
At Monash University, Prof Sundram heads the Translational Molecular Psychiatry research program, which aims to develop novel, disease-modifying treatments for psychotic disorders, particularly schizophrenia, using a broad translational approach. He also facilitated, the establishment of the Clinical Psychedelic Laboratory, an Australian-first, which conducts cutting-edge clinical trial research using psychedelic agents for mental disorders.
He has been involved for two decades in asylum seeker mental health establishing pro bono health services for asylum seekers. Prof Sundram is an expert consultant on asylum seeker and refugee mental health to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and has advised the: UN; UN Human Rights Council; Australian Human Rights Commission; national governments and numerous non-government organisations (NGOs).
He has been awarded the Cottrell Memorial Oration by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (2019) and the Isaac Schweitzer Lecture by Biological Psychiatry Australia (2023).
He currently is President-elect, Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Council member, International College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Chair, Asylum Seeker and Refugee Mental Health Network, RANZCP and Board Director, Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health. He has also served on the executive committee of the World Psychiatric Association Section on Developing Countries, and is former deputy editor of the Asian Journal of Psychiatry.