Dr. Jack Barchas (right), recipient of the 2004 American Psychiatric Association Award for Research in Psychiatry, with his proud son, Isaac.
Dr. Jack Barchas, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell and the Barklie McKee Henry Professor of Psychiatry, received the 2004 "American Psychiatric Association (APA) Award for Research" at the APA Annual Meeting in New York on May 4. It is the most significant award bestowed for research by the professional organization.
Dr. Barchas delivers the keynote address at the 2004 APA annual meeting.
Dr. Barchas is renowned for his research in the neurobiological basis of behavior, which has transformed the institutional face of psychiatric research. He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the "Bennett Award" for his discovery of how the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline) is made and metabolized by the brain, and markedly altered by stress and certain drugs. His 30-year career to date includes accomplishments as a researcher, educator, institution builder, and leader of biomedical policy, which he shared in his lecture, "Adventures in Psychiatric Research: From Neurobiology to Public Policy."
Currently, Dr. Barchas is chair of the Board of Trustees of the New York Academy of Medicine, and chair of the Association for Research on Nervous and Mental Disorders. In addition, he serves as president of the Pasarow Foundation, which provides awards for extraordinary scientific achievement in the fields of neuropsychiatry, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and the director of the Pritzker Network on Depression Research, which encompasses cross-institutional research efforts involving Cornell University, the University of Michigan and Stanford University.
Dr. Barchas received his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine, which was followed by an internship at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, and his psychiatric residency at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he continued as a faculty member until 1989. In 1990, he joined the faculty of the UCLA School of Medicine as dean for neuroscience, becoming dean for research development as well. In 1993, Dr. Barchas was appointed to his current position at Weill Cornell Medical College and as pyschiatrist-in-chief of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.