FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Barbara Wheeler
E-mail: bwheeler@narsad.org
Phone: (516) 829-0091
NARSAD Announces Discovery to Recovery National Awards Dinner
Honoring Outstanding Achievements in Mental Health Research
(GREAT NECK, N.Y. – October 12, 2010) Six brilliant researchers will receive NARSAD
Outstanding Achievement Awards for accomplishments in brain and behavior research.
NARSAD is the leading donor-supported organization dedicated to funding mental health
research that will to lead to scientific discovery and ultimately recovery for people living with
mental illness. Since 1987 NARSAD has awarded more than $260 million in 3,832 grants to
3,132 scientists around the world.
“NARSAD is thrilled to be honoring these leaders in mental health research,” said Benita Shobe,
NARSAD president and CEO. “They are leading the way to breakthroughs that will improve the
lives of the one in four Americans with a debilitating mental illness today. Their extraordinary
accomplishments are representative of the cutting-edge scientific research NARSAD funds in
order to make new discoveries on the pathway toward recovery for countless individuals and
their families.”
NARSAD Outstanding Achievement Award winners are dedicated teachers and scientists. Their
prizes recognize individual leadership in the field and represent models of accomplishment for
younger scientists in brain and behavior research. This reinforces the commitment NARSAD
makes to nurture and invest in the most promising ideas in mental health research.
Awardees will be honored at the NARSAD National Awards Dinner October 29 and speak at a
public Mental Health Research Symposium in New York City, also October 29.
The prize winners are:
Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research
Ming T. Tsuang, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.
University of California, San Diego
Dr. Tsuang is a world-renowned leader in the genetics of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (or
manic-depression) and substance abuse. He is the director of UCSD’s Center for Behavioral
Genomics and concurrently directs the Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and
Genetics in Boston. He is also a member of the NARSAD Scientific Council. Dr. Tsuang’s
seminal achievements began early in his career. His 1965 Ph.D. thesis, a study of siblings with
psychiatric disorders, postulated multiple-gene causality for schizophrenia, a theory that is now
widely accepted. He went on to develop some of the world’s largest samples of sibling pairs for
genetics research. He led a 40-year study that provided the first evidence of a distinction between
schizophrenia and affective disorders, as well as clinical criteria for subtypes of schizophrenia.
His current quest is to identify predisposing traits for schizophrenia toward the ultimate goal of
learning how to stop psychiatric disorders before they start.
Outstanding Achievement Prize for Mood Disorders Research
Lars Vedel Kessing, M.D., D.M.Sc.
University of Copenhagen
Dr. Kessing is a professor of psychiatry and director of the mood disorders clinic at the
Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, in Denmark. His scientific focus encompasses
clinical, epidemiological and neurobiological studies of affective disorders, particularly unipolar
depression and bipolar disorder, for which he draws upon a nationwide Danish data base. In the
laboratory and the clinic, Dr. Kessing and his group explore a broad range of questions focusing
on the onset and course of mood disorders, considering such factors as the effects of other
illnesses, age, gender, and genetic and familial risks on the onset of illness, as well as the risk of
dementia associated with depression and the efficacy of currently prescribed medications. A
leader in scientific and medical activities in his country and internationally, Dr. Kessing chairs
the Danish Society for Affective Disorders, established in 2009. Among his honors, he received
the prestigious Nielsen Prize and the Larsens Foundation Prize in Denmark.
Ruane Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Childhood Psychiatric Disorders
Avshalom Caspi, Ph.D.
Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy and Institute of Psychiatry/King’s College
London
Dr. Caspi’s research focuses on understanding how childhood experiences shape the course of
health inequalities through a lifetime and how genetic differences shape the way people respond
to their environments. Dr. Caspi uses the tools of psychology, epidemiology and neuroscience in
his research, and has made significant contributions to understanding the development of mental
illness within the context of specific environments and childhood experiences. He has served on
the executive council of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development and
has been recognized widely for his research, having received many prestigious awards for his
research on adolescents and the developmental process of mental illness.
Terrie E. Moffitt, Ph.D.
Duke University and Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience/King’s College London
Dr Moffitt is being recognized for her study of how the environment and genes interact to shape
human behavior and affect mental health. She directs the Environmental-Risk Longitudinal Twin
Study, which is following 1,100 British families with twins born in 1994-1995 from the twins’
birth to the present. Dr. Moffitt has made valuable contributions to understanding the origins and
consequences of severe anti-social behavior, and has also studied young people’s depression,
psychosis and substance abuse. Her work shows the importance of recognizing the childhood
origins of adult mental and physical health. She is the associate director of the Dunedin
Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit of the Dunedin School of Medicine, in
New Zealand, which has been following 1,000 New Zealanders since their birth in 1972. Her
work has been recognized with a Distinguished Career Award in Clinical Child Psychology from
the American Psychological Association, and numerous other awards.
Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience
Robert C. Malenka, M.D., Ph.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Malenka has been at the forefront of efforts to apply new knowledge achieved through basic
neuroscience to the treatment and prevention of neuropsychiatric disorders. He directs the Pritzker
Laboratory at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-directs the Stanford Institute for
Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences. Dr. Malenka’s research is aimed at
understanding neurotransmission – the process of cell-to-cell message relay in the brain. Over the
past 25 years his findings have helped to lay the groundwork for a deeper, more sophisticated
understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which neural circuits are modified by experience
and the adaptations in nerve-cell communication that underlie normal and pathological behavior.
His laboratory’s current work on brain disorders involving dysfunction at the synapse – the junction
where nerve cells converse – includes investigations of addiction, autism and Alzheimer’s disease.
He is also a member of the NARSAD Scientific Council and has received numerous other
prestigious awards throughout his career.
Sidney R. Baer Jr. Prize for Schizophrenia Research
Stephen J. Glatt, Ph.D.
State University of New York, Upstate Medical University
In research centered on the genetic and environmental contributors to major mental illnesses, Dr.
Glatt is examining candidate genes and conducting genome-wide studies. He is seeking causes
and biomarkers that will facilitate earlier identification, intervention and prevention of major
mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder and substance abuse. He is the associate director of the Medical Genetics Research
Center and director of the psychiatric genetic epidemiology and neurobiology laboratory at
SUNY. NARSAD is funding Dr. Glatt’s research with two Young Investigator awards. Also, he
is currently the principal investigator on National Institute of Mental Health-funded studies of
schizophrenia and autism.
Also to be honored will be three extraordinary individuals with the second annual NARSAD
Productive Lives Awards. Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Elyn Saks, Esq., Ph.D., and Andrew
Solomon are being recognized for their lifelong struggle with mental illness, demonstrating that
recovery is possible.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND INTERVIEWS BY REQUEST
###