Global psychiatry mourns Professor Dan Stein, visionary who transformed mental health science across Africa and beyond

NEW YORK, New York, USA, 31 December 2025 — An obituary published today in Genomic Psychiatry pays tribute to Professor Dan Joseph Stein, the internationally acclaimed psychiatrist and neuroscientist who died on 6 December 2025 at age 63 after a brief illness. Professor Stein served as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, Director of the South African Medical Research Council Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders, and Scientific Director of the UCT Neuroscience Institute. His death leaves an immeasurable void in the global mental health community.

A Career Shaped by Conscience

Born on 17 September 1962 in South Africa, Professor Stein graduated with distinction from the University of Cape Town medical school before completing residency training in psychiatry and a postdoctoral fellowship in psychopharmacology at Columbia University. His decision to train abroad was not merely academic. He left to avoid conscription into the apartheid-era military. When Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first Black president, Professor Stein returned home, driven by moral duty to rebuild his country through science and mental health.

What followed was three decades of institution-building that would transform psychiatric research across an entire continent. Between 1994 and 2005, he directed the South African Medical Research Council Unit on Anxiety & Stress Disorders at Stellenbosch University, establishing pioneering programs in brain imaging and neurogenetics. The South African Stress and Health Study, which he led, became Africa's first nationally representative mental health survey.

From Bench to Bedside to Bundu

Professor Stein's research philosophy defied conventional boundaries. He famously advocated moving from "bench" (laboratory neuroscience) to "bed" (clinical treatment) to "bundu" (community epidemiology and public mental health). This integrative vision produced scholarship of extraordinary range. He chaired the DSM-5 and ICD-11 workgroups on obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. He co-directed ENIGMA consortium projects spanning OCD, anxiety, and HIV neuroimaging. He helped lead the NeuroGAP-Psychosis study, tackling the chronic underrepresentation of African genomes in psychiatric genetics.

The numbers alone stagger. More than 1,600 peer-reviewed publications. Over 25 scholarly volumes. A Google Scholar h-index exceeding 220 with more than 330,000 citations. Yet colleagues insist the statistics miss something essential about who Dan Stein was.

Building Bridges Across Continents and Generations

As founding president of the African College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Professor Stein constructed networks linking African researchers to colleagues in Scandinavia, Europe, and beyond. He founded UCT's Brain-Behaviour Initiative and laid the groundwork for the Neuroscience Institute, the first multidisciplinary neuroscience center on the African continent.

"Beyond the citations and accolades, those who knew Dan speak of a man whose office door was always open, whose emails arrived with unexpected warmth, and whose mentorship extended far beyond the confines of academia," write Dr. Julio Licinio and Dr. Ma-Li Wong in the obituary. "He had a rare gift for making junior colleagues feel seen and valued, for asking the question that unlocked a stalled project, for celebrating others' successes as genuinely as his own."

His accolades reflected worldwide recognition: the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry, the Max Hamilton Memorial Award from the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the John F.W. Herschel Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa, and the SAMRC Platinum Award. He maintained a repeat A-rating from the South African National Research Foundation and held fellowships in the Academy of Science of South Africa, the Royal Society of South Africa, the African Academy of Sciences, and the World Academy of Sciences.

A Legacy That Endures

The obituary opens with lines from Fernando Pessoa: A morte é a curva da estrada, / Morrer é só não ser visto. Death is the curve on the road. To die is simply to no longer be seen.

Professor Stein is survived by his wife, Professor Heather Zar, his children Gabriella, Joshua, and Sarah, and his grandson Rafa. His funeral was held on 7 December 2025 in Pinelands, Cape Town.

"The bridges he constructed around the world, between disciplines and people, remain strong and continue to inspire the pursuit of mental health for all through evidence-based activities," the authors conclude. In a field that often rewards competition over collaboration, Dan Stein built something rarer: a global community united by shared purpose and mutual respect. That community now carries forward his conviction that rigorous science and deep compassion are not opposites, but partners.

The Obituary in Genomic Psychiatry titled "In Memory of Professor Dan Joseph Stein (1962-2025)," is freely available via Open Access, starting on 31 December 2025 in Genomic Psychiatry at the following hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.61373/gp025o.0131.

About Genomic Psychiatry: Genomic Psychiatry: Advancing Science from Genes to Society (ISSN: 2997-2388, online and 2997-254X, print) represents a paradigm shift in genetics journals by interweaving advances in genomics and genetics with progress in all other areas of contemporary psychiatry. Genomic Psychiatry publishes peer-reviewed medical research articles of the highest quality from any area within the continuum that goes from genes and molecules to neuroscience, clinical psychiatry, and public health.

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