Danai Dima

Professor Danai Dima is a full-time faculty member at City, University of London, specifically within the School of Health & Psychological Sciences and the Department of Psychology. She holds the academic rank of Professor and is actively engaged in research and teaching. Her primary research focus is on cognitive neuroscience, particularly the neural underpinnings of psychosis, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, using advanced neuroimaging and genetic methodologies.

Her research interests are centered on cognition and psychosis, with a strong emphasis on employing neuroimaging methods (such as fMRI and structural MRI), connectivity analyses, and genetics. A key aspect of her work involves large-scale collaborative science, as she co-chairs the Lifespan Working Group within the international ENIGMA initiative, which conducts mega-analyses of neuroimaging data across dozens of cohorts worldwide. Her work investigates brain structure and function across the lifespan in both healthy individuals and those with psychiatric disorders.

Her recent publications, which are numerous and of high impact, demonstrate a consistent trend in large-scale, multi-cohort neuroimaging studies. Her research spans topics such as brain aging in schizophrenia and depression, subcortical and cortical volume trajectories across the human lifespan, the impact of polygenic risk scores on brain function, and the neural correlates of anxiety and working memory in psychiatric populations. This body of work highlights her expertise in computational psychiatry and imaging genetics.

Professor Dima is actively involved in academic mentorship, welcoming enquiries from potential PhD students for supervision. Her work is supported by major international consortia like ENIGMA, which function as her primary research team and collaborative network. Her career trajectory, from a Psychology degree in Athens to a PhD funded by a Marie Curie Fellowship and a Senior Research Fellow position at King's College London, before securing a permanent professorial role at City, reflects a distinguished and ongoing academic career.