Bartholomeus Cornelius Maria (Benno) Haarman (1978) is a Researcher at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and a Psychiatrist and Head of the Mood and Anxiety Disorder Program of the Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen.

The program for Mood and Anxiety Disorders of the Department of Psychiatry has a clear focus on academic patient care, integrating top level health care with the latest insights from experimental research and teaching. The program joins the ambition the Department in bringing innovative neurostimulating treatments such as rTMS and DBS as well as chronotherapy and psycho-stimulating medication that have been proven in research into clinical practice. 

Alongside continuing efforts to elucidate the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder, Dr. Haarman’s research currently focuses on the treatment of this severe psychiatric illness using immune modulating and chronobiological therapies. From October 2008 until March 2017 he performed his PhD-candidacy under the supervision of Prof. Willem Nolen, Prof. Hemmo Drexhage, Dr. Rixt Riemersma–Van der Lek and Dr. Huib Burger at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He participated in the MOODINFLAME study, where he coordinated the inclusion of the bipolar cohort, performed a combined positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging study and analyzed monocyte gene expression. In 2017 he obtained his PhD-degree with highest honor.

His publications include articles on the first neuroinflammation position emission tomography study in bipolar disorder and on the association between monocyte gene expression and specific psychiatric symptomatology in bipolar disorder, using a novel approach. This last publication earned him the Samuel Gershon award of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (2013).

Benno graduated from his medical studies with great honor in 2006 at the University Antwerp, Belgium. While studying medicine, he performed his master thesis on the topic of microvascular compression of the cochleovestibular nerve in the neurosurgery department of the Antwerp University Hospital, under the supervision of Prof. Dirk de Ridder. He also obtained his teaching certificate in biology.