Jim van Os (Utrecht, 1960) is Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at UMC Utrecht and a visiting professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Internationally regarded as one of the most influential psychiatrists of his generation, he was named among the world's most influential scientific minds by Thomson Reuters in 2014 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Schizophrenia International Research Society in 2023. A member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has long championed a reform movement in Dutch mental healthcare that moves away from rigid diagnostic labels toward person-centred care. He also writes widely read books for general audiences.
Jim van Os appears on August 30, 2026 as the sixth and final guest in the final season of VPRO Zomergasten, interviewed by Janine Abbring.
His new book What Psychological Suffering Is. And Why You Are Not Sick with Mental Difficulties appears at the end of August 2026.
Van Os attracts international attention with an opinion article in Nature, in which he advocates for the definitive abolition of the DSM.
Van Os receives the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Schizophrenia International Research Society for his groundbreaking research on the psychosis spectrum.
Thomson Reuters includes Van Os in the list of the world's most influential scientists - a mention that he has retained every year since.
