Simavi Vahip, is professor of psychiatry at the Affective Disorders Unit of Ege University Department of Psychiatry, Izmir, Turkey. His main areas of interest are mood disorders, especially bipolar disorders and related phenomena such as bipolar depression and manic switch; classification in psychiatry, and training in psychiatry. He is author in more than 130 papers and 20 books or book chapters in Turkish and in English. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Psychiatry Update / Journal of Continuing Education & Continuing Professional Development of Psychiatric Association of Turkey (2011-2014). He served as president (2014-2016) and vice-president (2011-2014) for the Psychiatric Association of Turkey (PAT). He was president of the Society for Bipolar Disorders of Turkey (ISBD affiliated) between 2010 and 2013 and he was elected as member of the Board of Councillors of the International Society for Bipolar Disorder (ISBD) for two consecutive periods (2007-2011). He served for the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) at many levels: chair (2019-21) and the vice-chair (2017-19) of the Steering Committee of the EPA-Council of National Psychiatric Associations; member at EPA Executive Committee and EPA Board (2019-21). He served as founding editor-in-chief for the InterACT (Official Newsletter of EPA Council of National Psychiatric Associations) and he is continuing this task since 2018. Currently he is member at the EPA Board and EPA Ethics Committee.