Prof Jason Bantjes is a mental health and suicide prevention researcher who joined the SAMRC in January 2022.

Previously he worked at the Institute for Life Course Health Research (Department of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University), where he still holds an extra-ordinary appointment. He has also worked as a psychologist and psychotherapist, and has been actively involved in the training of clinical psychologists in the Psychology Department at Stellenbosch University. 

He is an associate editor of the journal BMC Public Health and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town.

His current research focuses on psychiatric epidemiology, mental health promotion and suicide prevention, with a particular interest in the wellbeing of adolescents and young adults.