NIH 1999 Almanac/The Organization/NIMH/
National Institute of Mental Health : Biographical Sketch of NIMH Director
Steven E. Hyman, M.D.
Dr. Hyman was appointed NIMH director in April 1996. Under his leadership, NIMH has heightened the priority it gives to four broad areas: 1) fundamental research on brain, behavior, and genetics; 2) rapid translation of basic discoveries into research on mental disorders; 3) research that directly impacts the treatment of individuals with mental disorders, including clinical trials and studies of treatment and preventive interventions in "real world" settings; 4) research on child development and childhood mental disorders. He continues to direct an active research program in molecular neurobiology on the NIH campus (in Bethesda, Md.); the program focuses on how neurotransmitters, especially dopamine and glutamate, alter the expression of genes in the striatum and thereby produce long-term changes in neural function that can influence behavior.
Born on July 25, 1952, in New York City, he received a B.A. from Yale in 1974, an M.A. from the University of Cambridge (where he was a Mellon fellow) in 1976, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1980. He was a medical intern at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a psychiatric resident at McLean Hospital, and a clinical fellow in medicine and neurology at MGH. He also had 4 years of postdoctoral training in molecular biology at MGH.
Prior to assuming his position at NIMH, Dr. Hyman was professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of psychiatry research at MGH. He also taught neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and was the first faculty director of Harvard's Interfaculty Initiative in Mind, Brain, and Behavior. In addition to his scientific writings, he has authored and edited several widely used clinical texts.
He serves on several review and advisory boards, including the Riken Brain Sciences Institute in Japan, the Max Planck Institut in Germany, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the United States.
Directors of NIMH
