Jair C. Soares, MD, PhD

Biography

Administrative Contacts: Telisha Green (BBSB Admin Assistant: 713-486-2507); Charlotte Gregg (UTHealth Houston Behavioral Sciences Campus Senior Executive Assistant: 713-741-7851)

Dr. Jair C. Soares joined UTHealth Houston in 2009 as Professor and Chair of the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Pat Rutherford Chair in Psychiatry at the McGovern Medical School, as well as the Executive Director of UTHealth Harris County Psychiatric Center.  Since 2022, he also serves as Executive Director of the UTHealth John S. Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center, as well as Vice-President for Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth Houston.  A Board-certified psychiatrist, he oversees the Psychiatry Services at Memorial Hermann Hospital and LBJ Hospital.  The sites provide patient care and are clinical training and research facilities for UTHealth medical students, psychiatry residents and psychiatry fellows.

Dr. Soares directs the UTHealth Center of Excellence on Mood Disorders, which focuses on the search for causes and the development of new treatments for mood disorders. The Center is comprised of an active research team that specializes in clinical neurosciences (neuroimaging, neurophysiology, cognitive neurosciences, and genetics) and clinical psychopharmacology and interventions research.

Dr. Soares received his medical degree from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and completed a general psychiatry residency at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh.  Subsequently, Dr. Soares completed a brain imaging fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry.  He obtained a PhD in medical sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).

Prior to joining UTHealth, Dr. Soares served as the Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Center of Excellence for Research and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and as Deputy Chair for Research and Division Chief for Mood and Anxiety Disorders with the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Dr. Soares has published more than 350 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the psychiatric literature and has held editorial positions on a number of national and international medical journals.  His research has been funded over the years by multiple grants from NIH, VA, private foundations and the pharmaceutical industry.  Dr. Soares is a past President for the American Association for Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry, and the International Society on Affective Disorders.  He currently serves as Vice-President for the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC).  Since April 2015, he has been the co-editor in chief for the Journal of Affective Disorders.  He also is co-editor in chief for Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, which was launched in 2020.  He also serves in the executive council, finance committee and in the travel award committee for the International Society for Clinical Trials Methodology (ISCTM).