Dr. Rifai is an American-Syrian physician executive and scientist and a world-renowned researcher on the medical aspects of psychiatric illness. He is a recipient of the National Insitute of Mental Health Clinical Excellence Award in 2005 and the prestigious William Webb Award from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine in 2006. Dr. Rifai is originally from Aleppo, Syria.
Dr. Rifai's National Research Service Award fellowship training in neuroscience was at the University of Tennessee, College of Medicine in Memphis. His residency training in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry Program was at the University of Virginia, School of Medicine. Dr. Rifai then completed further clinical fellowship training at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Rifai is the American Psychiatric Association Janssen Scholar on Psychiatric and Medical Disorders, he is the William Webb Fellow of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine