Research leaders

Professor Eric Chen is a Professorial Fellow who works in First Episode Psychosis Research at Orygen. He studies processes leading to the onset and outcomes in psychotic disorders and youth mental health.

Professor Chen (EC) started pre-clinical medical training at Oxford and clinical medicine at Edinburgh. He received specialist psychiatry training in Nottingham and senior training in Cambridge.

After taking up a position at the University of Hong Kong, EC continued his study of neurocognitive dysfunctions in psychosis (early visual processing, semantic memory, cortical excitability, motor coordination, etc). While investigating the evolution of cognitive dysfunction in the first few years of illness, EC observed a significant treatment delay in the presentation of psychosis. This data led to the subsequent government funding of an early intervention service for psychosis, the EASY service.

He also established a Master's Programme in Psychosis Studies at the University of Hong Kong. It is one of the first such programmes to be offered in Asia and worldwide.

EC collaborated extensively with colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region on early intervention programmes. He founded the Asian Network for Early Psychosis and was involved in the Asian College of Schizophrenia Research, where he was recently elected president. Eric played a pivotal role in the Harvard Medical School project on the cross-cultural study of the onset of schizophrenia (led by Professor Byron Good).

In 2014, EC was awarded the prestigious Richard Wyatt Award by the International Early Psychosis Association in recognition of Early Psychosis research and service development. In 2024, EC received the Honorific Distinguished Service Award from the Schizophrenia International Research Society.

Eric’s work is published in over 400 journal articles and several academic books.

Eric had previously served as Chair Professor and Head at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Hong Kong; Professor of Psychiatry and Senior Consultant at LKC Medicine Nanyang Technical University and the Institute of Mental Health, Singapore. He also served as President of the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists, Vice-President of the International Early Psychosis Association, and Chairman of the Asian Network for Early Psychosis and the Asian College of Schizophrenia Research.