Stephan Heckers, M.D., M.Sc., William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Schizophrenia Research and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, has been named the next editor-in-chief of JAMA Psychiatry, one of nine specialty journals in the JAMA Network.
Heckers, who currently serves on the editorial board of JAMA Psychiatry, will become the fifth editor of the journal, replacing Joseph Coyle, M.D., of Harvard, who has been editor since 2002 of the journal formerly known as the Archives of General Psychiatry.
“It is an honor to take over from Dr. Joe Coyle as the next editor of JAMA Psychiatry. These are exciting times for psychiatry, with frequent discoveries and the real potential to improve patient care. As editor of JAMA Psychiatry, I plan to continue the long tradition of publishing seminal studies from the laboratory, the bedside and the community,” said Heckers, whose appointment is effective Jan. 1.
A graduate of the University of Cologne School of Medicine in Germany, Heckers completed his clinical training in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was director of the schizophrenia and bipolar disorder program at McLean Hospital from 2003 to 2005. He came to Vanderbilt in 2006.
His research focuses on the neural basis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He combines neuroimaging experiments in patients with cellular and molecular studies. Heckers also has served on the editorial boards of Schizophrenia Bulletin and Schizophrenia Research and as a scientific council member of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.
“JAMA Psychiatry has been extremely fortunate to have such an outstanding scientist Joe Coyle, as editor-in-chief for the past 13 years — a time of remarkable progress in psychiatry. With the appointment of Stephan Heckers, the journal will reach further into the new frontiers of psychiatry,” said Howard Bauchner, M.D., editor-in-chief of JAMA and the JAMA Network.
