Professor Gordon Parker AO

Professor Gordon Parker AO is Scientia Professor of Psychiatry, UNSW, was the Founder of the Black Dog Institute and its initial Executive Director, Head of the School of Psychiatry at UNSW and Director of the Division of Psychiatry at Prince of Wales Hospital.

His positions with the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists include being Editor of its Journal.  Positions with legal organisations include the NSW Guardianship Board and the NSW Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

In 2004 he received a Citation Laureate as the Australian Scientist most highly cited in  ‘Psychiatry/Psychology’.

In 2010 he was made an officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of his distinguished service to psychiatry as a clinician and researcher, particularly as a major contributor to the understanding and innovative treatment of mood disorders and as founder and Executive Director of the Black Dog Institute.

In 2018 he received the prestigious James Cook Medal from the Royal Society of New South Wales and was a finalist for the NSW Senior Australian of the Year.

He is the recipient of the 2020 Australian Mental Health Prize.  His research has focused on the mood disorders. He has published 23 books and over 1,000 scientific reports.

His first book of fiction was published in 1966 and his latest novel In Two Minds in 2017.  In the 60’s, he wrote for The Mavis Bramston Show and OZ Magazine, was an ABC Science broadcaster, a book reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.

In 2004 had a play Personality Games was produced by La Mama in Melbourne. His autobiography A Piece of My Mind: A Psychiatrist on the Couch was published in 2012.

His co-authored book on Burnout Burnout: A Guide to Identifying Burnout and Patterns to Recovery was published in July 2021.