Psychiatry prof has bumper crop of PhD students

Professor Dan Stein (pictured), head of the Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health, and Director of the Brain-Behaviour Initiative (BBI) at UCT, saw eight of his PhD students graduate this year.

They were Lukoye Atwoli (a Kenyan national), Shareefa Dalvie (with Prof Raj Ramesar as primary supervisor), Kirsty Donald, Coenie Hattingh, Jacqueline Hoare, Nastassja Koen, Anne Uhlmann (a German national), and Daniella Vuletic.

Questions addressed in their dissertations centered on areas such as post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, and neuro HIV/AIDS. Research methods ranged over a broad number of areas, including epidemiology, brain imaging, and genetic research.

In further achievements, Atwoli set a new record of professional advancement by a PhD student by becoming dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of Moi University in Kenya while completing his doctorate. Donald and Hoare were promoted to associate professors in the Faculty of Health Sciences of UCT. Koen doubled as BBI project manager during her doctoral studies.