We are delighted to announce that Prof. Dr. Inez Myin-Germeys was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Psychology during the Dies Academicus 2025 ceremony.

The Faculty of Psychology of the University of Basel confers all the dignity, rights and privileges of an honorary doctorate in psychology upon Prof. Dr. Inez Myin-Germeys

• in acknowledgment of her contributions to the psychological understanding of the psychopathology of mental disorders, particularly in the development of psychosis;
• in acknowledgment of her pioneering investigations into the interplay between individuals and their environment, demonstrating the central role of psychosocial determinants in the development of mental health problems;
• in acknowledgment of her leading role in the methodological development of mobile electronic diary techniques to capture dynamic psychopathological processes in daily life, and her commitment to translating digital innovation into clinical practice in mental health care.

Inez Myin-Germeys, born on April 11, 1972, in Wilrijk (Belgium), is a clinical psychologist and full professor of psychiatry at KU Leuven, and director of the Center for Contextual Psychiatry at KU Leuven.

Inez Myin-Germeys received her Master in Theoretical Psychology from KU Leuven in 1995 and her PhD 2001 from Maastricht University. During her post-doc, she received prestigious awards, including the VENI fellowship (Dutch Research Council, NWO) and two National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) awards. In 2005, she began her academic tenure as an Assistant Professor at Maastricht University, and within a year, her research excellence was recognized with a VIDI grant (NWO), with which she established her own research group. In 2007, she received the Aspasia Award for Women in Science, followed by her promotion to Associate Professor. By 2010, at the age of 38, Inez Myin-Germeys was appointed Full Professor of Ecological Psychiatry at Maastricht University, where she became the Division Leader of Mental Health at the Research School of Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS). Her pioneering work was recognized by an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2012.

Inez Myin-Germeys made significant contributions to the psychological understanding of psychopathology in general and psychosis specifically, emphasizing the dynamic interplay between individuals and their environment in mental health problems, a field she coined Contextual Psychiatry. To capture psychopathological processes in daily life, Inez Myin-Germeys and her team pioneered a sophisticated diary technique, called the Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM), also known as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). She has spearheaded the widespread adoption of ESM/EMA in mental health research and has contributed significantly to methodological and statistical developments in this field. Using ESM, Inez Myin-Germeys developed the influential theory of the affective pathway to psychosis, and she is a leading researcher on the development and clinical implementation of digital innovations in mental health.

Today, Inez Myin-Germeys is directing the Center for Contextual Psychiatry at her Alma Mater KU Leuven, which she founded with the generous means of an Odysseus Brain Gain grant (€5.2 million, Flemish Research Council, FWO, 2016). The Center for Contextual Psychiatry is a world-leading hub of expertise in ESM and digital mental health. With a strong focus on collaboration, open science, and involvement of people with lived experience, the Center is setting the bar for high-quality research in psychiatry. Since 2021, Inez Myin-Germeys has been the chief investigator of the international Horizon 2020 IMMERSE project, implementing ESM as a clinical tool in routine mental health care in four European countries. This project was awarded the Value Based Healthcare Prize for Collaboration in 2024. Bridging methodological and fundamental research with real-world implementation, Inez Myin-Germeys was honoured with the 2024 Outstanding Translational Research Award by the Schizophrenia International Research Society. 

A female professor and proud mother of three daughters, Inez Myin-Germeys is a role model for the next generation of scientists and her dedication to fostering early-career researchers has been a hallmark of her leadership. 

The Faculty of Psychology is pleased and proud to award Inez Myin-Germeys an honorary doctorate for her contributions to psychology in research and teaching.