Hyman Named New Chief of NIMH

Has headed Mind/Brain/Behavior

Steven E. Hyman, associate professor of psychiatry at the Medical School, has been named the new director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the leading federal agency for research on mental disorders and one of the components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Hyman, director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Initiative on Mind/Brain/Behavior, is also director of research in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Harold Varmus, director of the NIH, announced the appointment of Hyman last week. "I am especially pleased that the NIH will gain the expertise of Dr. Hyman, whose research on the biological bases of mental disorders puts him on a major frontier in biomedical science today," Varmus said. "Exploration of the nervous system promises enormous advances in our understanding and treatment of some of the most devastating illnesses facing Americans, their families, and society."

"Dr. Hyman's basic research accomplishments coupled with his clinical expertise provide a superb combination for guiding development of innovative approaches to improve care," Varmus added.

As director of NIMH, Hyman will oversee a staff of more than 850 scientists, administrators, and support staff and an annual budget of more than $600 million. NIMH supports research by investigators in public and private institutions across the country, as well as by scientists working in the intramural research program.

Studies range from fundamental investigations of the way that biology and the environment interact to influence the workings of the brain to development of new treatments for mental disorders. NIMH was established in 1946 and is a lead agency in the congressionally designated Decade of the Brain.

"Unlocking the mysteries of the brain and mental illnesses [is] the supreme challenge of biomedical science today," said Hyman. "The accelerating fields of neuroscience and molecular biology offer unprecedented opportunities for advancing our understanding of the complex interplay between biological phenomena and environmental influences that shape human behavior and give rise to mental illnesses. Thus this is an extraordinarily exciting time to assume leadership of the National Institute of Mental Health.

"I am proud to be joining an institute dedicated to translating scientific advances into new hope for the one in every five Americans who suffer from mental illnesses," Hyman added. "On their behalf, we will make the most of the burgeoning opportunities for understanding, treating, and even preventing these disorders."

"Steve's appointment is an extraordinary gain for the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health, but it's a loss we'll feel deeply here at Harvard psychiatry," said Joseph Coyle, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical School. "The loss is balanced by the fact that we now have a director of the National Institute of Mental Health with real scientific credibility and a broad vision of where the field is going."

Hyman was selected as the top candidate for the NIMH post by a committee of distinguished consultants after an extensive nationwide search. The committee noted the breadth of his interests in both basic and clinical research, and his commitment to excellence as a scientist, teacher, and research leader.

In his own research, Hyman has investigated various mechanisms that cause long-term changes in the brain at the cellular and molecular levels. He has authored a handbook of psychiatric drug therapy and some 60 papers and textbook chapters, and serves on the editorial board of several neuroscience and psychiatry journals.

Hyman is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, the Society for Neuroscience, and the Boston Society of Neurology and Psychiatry. He has served on numerous Harvard and NIH advisory committees, and was voted best teacher by the Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatry residents for several consecutive years.

A summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, Hyman studied at the University of Cambridge in England before attending Harvard Medical School from 1976 to 1980. From 1981 to 1984 he held a fellowship in psychiatry at Harvard, and from 1984 to 1985 he was a research fellow in molecular biology in the Harvard Department of Genetics. He became an assistant professor of psychiatry in 1989 and an associate professor in 1993.

Hyman will join the NIH on April 15.