Oye Gureje is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Neuroscience, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Professor Extraordinary, Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is a member of the WHO International Advisory Group for the Revision of ICD-10 Chapter on Mental and Behavioural Disorders, Chairs the Workgroup on Somatic Distress and Dissociative Disorders and is Vice Chair of the Field Studies Coordinating Group of the revision exercise. He is a past President of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria and of the African Association of Psychiatrists and Allied Professions.

Professor Gureje is a member of the Editorial Board of several journals including International Review of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Epidemiology and Psychiatric Services and Lancet Psychiatry. He has been active in global mental health for over two decades with leadership roles in several collaborative studies in epidemiology, randomized controlled trials and health system strengthening. A well-cited author (citations > 12,000; H-index: 51), he has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, 30 book chapters, and 6 edited books.

He plays a leading role in mental health policy development in Nigeria as the Chair of the Federal Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Action Committee. A Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Science, he was, in 2008, conferred with Nigeria’s highest award for academic achievement, the Nigeria National Order of Merit, by the country’s President for his contributions to medicine.