Rate My Professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida

Alexander Moreira-Almeida is a professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine of the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) in Brazil and founder and director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES) at the same institution since 2006. He earned his medical degree from UFJF, completed residency training and a PhD in psychiatry at the University of São Paulo, and undertook postdoctoral training in religion and health at Duke University. His academic appointments include roles coordinating anxiety disorder programs at the UFJF University Hospital. Moreira-Almeida has served as chair of the Section on Spirituality of the Latin American Psychiatric Association and former chair of the corresponding sections of the World Psychiatric Association (2014–2020) and the Brazilian Psychiatric Association (2014–2021). In 2025 he received the Oskar Pfister Award from the American Psychiatric Association for his contributions to psychiatry and spirituality. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific papers and book chapters that have received over 10,000 citations, along with books including Science of Life After Death (2022) and the edited volume Spirituality and Mental Health Across Cultures (Oxford University Press, 2021). His research centers on the empirical study of spiritual experiences, the mind-brain relationship, and related methodological issues. He also coordinates educational initiatives such as TV NUPES.