‘An aura of greatness’: UCT honours the extraordinary life and legacy of Prof Dan Stein

Staff, students, colleagues, family and friends gathered at Groote Schuur Hospital in a packed auditorium to celebrate the life and remarkable legacy of Professor Dan Stein, the longest-serving head of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health.

The packed lecture theatre reflected the profound reach of a scholar and health professional whose influence spanned disciplines, continents and generations of researchers. Many more joined virtually from across South Africa and around the world.

Stein died on 5 December 2025 following a short illness.

As people entered the lecture theatre, they were greeted by a slideshow of photographs tracing moments from his life — a quiet tribute to an outstanding clinician, scholar, advocate and mentor whose work had shaped mental health at UCT, in Africa and globally.

Transforming mental health

Stein was appointed head and chair of UCT’s Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health in 2005 at just 43 years old. He would go on to become the longest-serving head of department in the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences.  He also served as director of two South African Medical Research Council (SA-MRC) units: the SA-MRC Unit on Anxiety & Stress Disorders, followed by the SA-MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders.

A psychiatrist, neuroscientist and philosopher by training, he was widely recognised for his rare ability to bridge disciplines. Drawing together philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry and clinical practice, he developed new ways of understanding complex mental health conditions and the human experience of suffering.

He was one of the most highly cited researchers in Africa and in psychiatry. Globally, his output of over 1 600 publications and more than 25 scholarly volumes is staggering in scale, scope and impact.

Speakers at the memorial described an intellect that was unparalleled and one that crossed disciplines, provided new insights and brought clarity and depth to every conversation.

His leadership also strengthened neuroscience across Africa and globally. He established the UCT Brain–Behaviour Centre and played a key role in founding the UCT Neuroscience Institute in 2015 and continued to serve as the scientific director.

He served in numerous leadership positions in global organisations for mental health, including World Health Organisation expert committees and DSM-5 and ICD-11 working groups. He directed worldwide initiatives such as ENIGMA neuroimaging (co-directing ENIGMA-OCD; ENIGMA-HIV; ENIGMA-Anxiety), World Mental Health Surveys, the Psychiatric Genetic Consortium and major African initiatives including NEURO-GAP, which tackles the under-representation of Africa in genetic research on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Moreover, he was a founder of the African College of Neuropsychopharmacology and served as its inaugural president.

A global voice in mental health

Stein’s work resonated internationally, where he was an influential voice in global mental health.

Professor Paul Thompson of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, who travelled to speak in person at the memorial service, paid homage to his long-standing collaborator.

“Dan launched a vast landscape of scientific activity with an incredible global impact. He cared for his patients with a rare combination of optimism and kindness. He was a mentor and advocate for his trainees, connecting them to leadership opportunities across the world with his relentless energy to improve global mental health. And in his work on global mental health, Dan saw the world as it truly is — a genuinely global community, including visionary scientists from South Africa and across the African continent among its leaders.”

For colleagues across the Global South, Stein’s achievements carried particular significance. Professor Giovanni Salum of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil reflected on what Stein represented to scholars working in under-resourced settings.

“I also want to acknowledge what it meant to have Dan as one of the truly great global leaders in psychiatry, coming from South Africa. In a world that often suggests — quietly or explicitly — that everything below the equator matters less, Dan broke through that barrier with brilliance and grace. Every time someone from the Global South gains recognition on the world stage, it feels like a collective victory for all of us who come from under-resourced settings — an affirmation of possibility and empowerment. His life and work expanded the horizon of what countless people across the Global South believe is possible.”

Despite his huge global standing, colleagues consistently described Stein as deeply humble.

“This humble man revelled in the success of his mentees and collaborators,” said Professor Emerita Val Mizrahi, former director of the UCT Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine. “He consistently underplayed his own role in their achievements.”

A mentor who inspired emerging researchers and mental health professionals

For many who spoke, his most enduring legacy lies in the people he mentored.

He transformed the Department of Psychiatry at UCT to become the strongest in Africa. He drove the establishment of new sub-specialities in psychiatry and of many new educational initiatives, doctoral programmes, master’s programmes and postgraduate diplomas in South Africa and at UCT.

He offered an unstinting commitment to strengthening the capacity of younger researchers and clinicians, actively creating opportunities, mentoring and connecting emerging scholars in Africa to global research networks.

Professor Lukoye Atwoli, psychiatrist and dean of the Aga Khan Medical College in Kenya, who had travelled to attend the service, recalled meeting Stein at an international meeting in Nairobi more than 15 years ago.

A conversation over dinner that evening would prove unexpectedly transformative.

“[Dan] asked me: ‘In 10 years’ time, Lukoye, what would you like to be known for?” Atwoli recalled. At the time, he realised he had never asked himself that question.

“Amid a busy career where I was teaching, learning and doing so many things — thinking I had everything figured out — I had never stopped to think about that.”

The moment sparked a decade of collaboration between the two scholars and helped shape Atwoli’s own trajectory in mental health research.

Associate Professor Goodman Sibeko, head of the Division of Addictions Psychiatry at UCT, similarly recalled the impression Stein made when he first started as head of department in 2005.

“I sensed an aura of greatness about him,” Sibeko said. “It was that creative energy and power you sometimes feel around great leaders and innovators.”

Many of Stein’s former students and colleagues have gone on to become leaders in mental health in South Africa and Africa, to lead interdisciplinary research programmes and to teach new generations of scholars.

A life grounded in family

While Stein’s academic achievements were widely celebrated, his family shared memories that revealed a touching dimension of his life.

His children remembered a father who provided unconditional love, who consistently stood beside them, and who taught them to think deeply, be curious and try every day to be a better human than yesterday. He introduced them to the beauty of the mountains, listened attentively to their ideas and instilled in them a strong sense of social responsibility.

His wife and partner of 36 years, Professor Heather Zar, reflected on the many ways his presence continues to live on in their family.

“I see fragments of Dan everywhere,” she said, noting how each of their children carries different aspects of his character and embodies his values.

The couple had recently become grandparents, and Zar recalled how their grandson delighted in being with Stein, calling his grandfather “Big Dadda”.

“He was the only person who could get Dan off his laptop,” she said with a smile.

A philosophy of humanity

Zar closed her tribute with a passage from Stein’s final book, Problems of Living: Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychiatry and Cognitive-Affective Science (2021).

“Soon we shall breathe our last,” she read. “Meanwhile, while we live, while we are among human beings, let us cultivate our humanity.”

The words captured the spirit of a life devoted not only to scholarship but also to a life of incredible humanity, dedicated to understanding and alleviating human suffering.

View the South African Journal of Science’s obituary of Professor Stein.

Others who shared reflections on the day included Professor Lionel Green-Thompson, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT; Professor Ron Kessler, Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, United States of America (USA); Professor Bernard Lerer, psychiatrist and director of Hadassah BrainLabs; Dr Emmanuel Kiiza Mwesiga, psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Uganda; Geoffrey Reed, professor of medical psychology at Columbia University, USA; Professor Bonga Chiliza, professor of psychiatry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; Professor Ntobeko Ntusi, President and Chief Executive Officer of the South African Medical Research Council; Professor Jeff Murugan, former deputy vice-chancellor of Research and Internationalisation at UCT; Professor John Joska, acting head of Department: Psychiatry and Mental Health at UCT; Associate Professor Nastassja Koen, head of Division: Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry at UCT; and Ms Carol Dean, director of Specialised Hospitals for the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness.