McMaster University professor Paul Links is taking over as acting chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences on Sept. 1 when current leader Nick Kates steps down. He is scheduled to hold the chair until the end of December.

Links returned to McMaster in 2017 as a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. He previously worked at McMaster from 1980 to 1994 as a professor in psychiatry and an associate member of what is now the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact.

“I am pleased to take on the role of Acting Chair. Under Dr. Kates’ leadership, the Department has progressed to a much stronger and secure place. I hope to continue this momentum during the transition to the next chair,” he said.

Links has extensive academic and clinical leadership experience, including having previously chaired the Department of Psychiatry at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario from 2012 to 2017.

Earlier, as a professor at the University of Toronto, he held the Arthur Sommer Rotenberg Chair in Suicide Studies at the University of Toronto from 1997 to 2011, the first professorial chair in North America dedicated to suicide research.

He completed both his BSc and MD at the University of Alberta in 1973, and his MSc in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster in 1988.

“Dr. Links brings a wealth of academic and clinical experience into his new role as acting chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences,” said Paul O’Byrne, Dean and Vice-President of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

“I appreciate him taking the position while our selection committee works to find the department’s next chair.”