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Iris Sommer is trained as a physician, psychiatrist, and earned her doctorate with honors in the field of schizophrenia. Iris Sommer can tell us everything about the mysteries of our brain.
Iris Sommer is trained as a psychiatrist and earned her doctorate on language in psychosis.
She started the Voices Clinic in Utrecht and studied auditory hallucinations using imaging and brain stimulation. In 2017, she moved to Groningen, where she continued her research on language as a biomarker for psychosis. Together with Lena Palaniyappan and others, she founded the Discourse in Psychosis Consortium. Other projects she leads include the optimal treatment of women with psychosis and improving the nutrition and microbiome of psychiatric patients. For the latter project, she won the Jubilee Prize from the Brain Foundation in 2020.
In 2021, she was appointed Distinguished Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies and in 2022, she won the Dutch annual award for Science and Society.
She is the Principal Investigator of the EU-funded Trusting consortium in 2023 and was appointed along with Philipp Homan, Wolfram Hinzen, and Brita Elvevag for an EU Synergy Award in 2024. Since April 2024, she has been the elected president of the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS).
Iris also writes popular science books, which have been translated into various languages.