Making Mental Health as Measurable as Physical Health

Dr. Emilia Molimpakis is the Co-Founder and CEO of Thymia, a member of the Scale Up 5th Cohort, where she leads the charge in making mental health assessments faster, more objective, and accessible using video game-inspired technology. Named one of the top scientists in mental health worldwide and a recipient of the Young Innovator’s Award, Emilia is redefining how we understand and treat mental health.

Dr. Molimpakis’s early career was rooted in research at University College London, where she earned her PhD and postdoc in Cognitive Neuroscience and Linguistics, specializing in using language as a biomarker for cognitive disorders. Her work spanned over a decade, during which she studied Alzheimer's, depression, and other conditions, revealing the power of language as a tool for assessing cognition. 

Her path took a turn when she entered the gaming industry, where she crafted language-based models to create scientifically valid, adaptive video games. It was this blend of neurolinguistics and gaming that sparked her idea for Thymia—the use of language and game mechanics to detect and monitor mental health conditions.

In addition to her advanced degrees, Dr. Molimpakis holds a BA in Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics from The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), as well as a Master of Science in Language Sciences with a specialization in Linguistics and Neuroscience. This diverse educational background has given her the skill to approach mental health from a multidisciplinary approach.