Elisabeth B. Binder

Professor Elisabeth Binder, MD, PhD, is a distinguished Austrian physician-scientist and neuroscientist recognised internationally for her transformative work on the biological mechanisms underlying affective and anxiety disorders. Born in Vienna, she completed her medical degree at the University of Vienna and earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Professor Binder began her academic career in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine before joining the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, in 2007. Since 2013 she has served as Director of the Department of Translational Research in Psychiatry, where her research seeks to elucidate how genetic variation and environmental exposures interact to shape stress reactivity and risk trajectories for mood and anxiety illnesses.
Her research has been influential in identifying molecular moderators of stress responses and uncovering gene–environment interactions that influence vulnerability and resilience to psychiatric disorders. This work integrates cutting-edge epigenetic analysis, translational neuroscience, and clinical insights to move beyond descriptive psychiatry toward mechanistic and preventive frameworks.
Professor Binder’s scientific achievements have garnered major international awards, including the Theodore Reich Young Investigator Award from the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics and the Max Hamilton Memorial Prize from the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP). She was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and in 2020 became a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, reflecting her global leadership in psychiatric research.
In professional service, she is Vice-President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and serves on numerous international scientific committees. Her extensive publication record spans foundational discoveries in stress biology, epigenetics, and translational psychiatry, contributing to a new biology-based taxonomy of psychiatric disease.