Dr Ping Qin is Professor at National Center for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Oslo in Norway, and leader of the research group for register-based study on suicide and deliberate self-harm. She is also distinguished visiting professor, co-founder and vice-director of Shandong University Center for Suicide Prevention Research in China. Previously, she was associate professor at National Center for Register-based Research, Aarhus University in Denmark and earned her PhD there in 2002.

Professor Qin is a passionate advocate of rigorous research in Suicidology and has devoted her professional life to studying suicidal behavior for 20 years. Her primary research interest has been into quantitative investigation of the contextual effect of multifactorial exposures on risk for suicide and suicidal behavior. She has led a range of large-scale research projects funded by various funding bodies in Denmark, USA, China and Norway. Professor Qin has published more than 80 research articles and book chapters about suicide and suicidal behavior in the context of socio-economic disadvantages, physical and psychiatric illnesses, life stresses as well as biological and genetic vulnerabilities.

Professor Qin volunteers her time extensively. She is Associate Editor of Suicidologi and on the editorial board of two international journals, evaluates grant applications for a number of research foundations and assesses manuscripts for more than 50 academic journals. She has been in various scientific committees and organized a number of symposiums and workshops at international congresses. In recent years, she also supervises Chinese scholars studying suicide in China.