Dr. Venkatasubramanian (Venkat) is a Professor of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health And Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India.  Venkat’s overarching research interest to learn the science that will facilitate a personalized approach to understand and treat severe mental disorders like schizophrenia.  In pursuit of this, Venkat has led research studies on the clinical neurobiology of schizophrenia involving multimodal brain imaging, neuroimmunology and neurometabolism.  He leads a specialized clinical research service for schizophrenia (Individualized Schizophrenia Treatment And Reintegration (InSTAR) Program) at NIMHANS.

Yet another area of his interest involves neuromodulatory interventions in psychiatry.  He leads the “Weak Intensity Stimulation for Enhancement and Reintegration” (WISER) Neuromodulation Program at NIMHANS which implements clinical & neurobiological research studies on transcranial Electrical Stimulation (tES) techniques in psychiatry. 

Venkat’s research works have led to more than 400 research publications and are recognized with several awards.  He is an elected fellow of the national science academies (FNASc, FNA & FASc) as well as the National Academy of Medical Sciences (FAMS) of India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to medical sciences, in 2018.