Soraya Sedat

Soraya Seedat is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Head of the Department of

Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University. She held the South African Research Chair in Posttraumatic Stress

Disorder for 15 years (until the end of 2022) and currently directs the South African Medical Research

Council Unit on the Genomics of Brain Disorders. She has 25 years of clinical, epidemiological and basic

neuroscience research experience as a psychiatrist working in the field of traumatic stress, anxiety and

neuroAIDS has published over 550 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts, co-edited six books and 35 book

chapters. She has extensive expertise in the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety

disorders, in adolescents and adults, and in the investigation of mechanisms of risk and resilience in

adolescent and adult samples. She is President-Elect of the International Society of Traumatic Stress

Studies and Secretary of the World Federation of the Societies of Biological Psychiatry. She has served

two terms as the President of the College of Psychiatrists of South Africa and three terms as Secretary.

She has ongoing projects in PTSD, anxiety disorders, neuroAIDS and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. She

has also been involved in multiple research training, capacity building and leadership development

activities in sub-Saharan Africa and internationally, supported by NIMH grants and other funding

initiatives.