Kristine Yaffe, the Leon J. Epstein, M.D., Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry and the Roy & Marie Scola Endowed Chair in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, has received the 2026 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health from the National Academy of Medicine.
The award recognizes Dr. Yaffe’s pioneering research on cognitive aging and dementia prevention, including her landmark contributions to understanding modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia. Over the past two decades, Dr. Yaffe has helped redefine dementia as a condition for which prevention may be possible, rather than an inevitable consequence of aging. Her work has uncovered a broad range of potentially modifiable factors, including physical activity, sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, cardiovascular health, and metabolic syndrome.
“Dr. Yaffe’s work has fundamentally changed how the medical and scientific communities understand dementia prevention,” said Monica M. Bertagnolli, president of the National Academy of Medicine. “By bringing together neurology, psychiatry, epidemiology, and public health, she has translated rigorous research on modifiable risk factors into evidence that can help shape prevention strategies and improve brain health across populations.”
At the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Yaffe holds faculty appointments in psychiatry, neurology, and epidemiology, and she is affiliated with the Weill Institute for Neurosciences. She also serves as vice chair of research in psychiatry and as director of the Center for Population Brain Health. In 2019, she became an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Yaffe holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology from Yale University and a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed a residency in neurology and psychiatry, a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry, and a fellowship in clinical epidemiology, all at the University of California, San Francisco.