William Sulis

Overview

Dr William Sulis is Director of the Collective Intelligence Laboratory at McMaster University. He holds an M.D. (Western), with Fellowships in both Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry (FRCPC). He also holds Ph.D.s in Mathematics (Western) and Physics (Waterloo). He has more than 40 yrs experience in Geriatric Psychiatry across the spectrum of clinical settings. He has particular interest in the assessment of dementia and directs the Haldimand Late Life Memory Clinic, and as well in the use of supportive psychotherapy in late life. He taught supportive psychotherapy in the CBS program for 10 yrs. His research interests are varied, ranging from studies on aging and mental illness and temperament (in collaboration with Dr Irina Trofimova) and formal modeling of the temperament-illness continuum, studies on collective intelligence, and studies in foundations of physics and complex systems. His research covers the range of clinical, formal/theoretical, and simulation based studies. He has published more than 60 papers and 3 books.

Current Research

In my lab we have studied the relationship between temperament and mental illness, and the impact of aging on the expression of temperament. We have studied tools for assessing dementia in the office. In particular we examined the use of the MMSE, MOCA and EDS in a rural setting. I am interested in the formal modeling of the temperament-illness continuum. In the past I have studied neural network models of dementia. Currently I am studying dynamical parallels between collective intelligence and neural systems.

Affiliations

• Associate Clinical Professor
• Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
• Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry u0026 Behavioural Neurosciences
• Director, Collective Intelligence Laboratory

Education

• MA, The University of Western Ontario
• PhD, The University of Western Ontario
• MD, The University of Western Ontario