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July 30, 2002
Genetics of Human Behavior Topic of August 2 Friday Evening Lecture at the Marine Biological Laboratory
WOODS HOLE, MA— Steven E. Hyman, M.D. Provost at Harvard University and former Director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, will present the next lecture in the Marine Biological Laboratory's (MBL's) 2002 Friday Evening Lecture Series. The lecture titled "Reflections on Behavior in the Postgenomic Era," will be held on Friday, August 2 at 8:00 PM in the MBL's Lillie Auditorium, located on MBL Street in Woods Hole. The presentation is free and open to the public. Dr. John E. Dowling, President of the Corporation of the MBL and Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University will introduce Dr. Hyman.
For the cell biologist, recent successes in genomics and in the large-scale study of gene expression and of proteins has lead to emerging confidence that the life sciences will soon be able to move beyond reductionism to a new "systems biology". For the scientist interested in behavior, especially human behavior, the state of knowledge is quite different. Using examples of schizophrenia and addiction, Dr. Hyman will examine the state of human behavior genetics, the vexing problem of phenotypes (or the visible properties of an organism), and the challenges of relating molecular-level information to higher levels of integration.
Steven Hyman received his B.A. from Yale University in 1974, his M.A. from the University of Cambridge in 1976, and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 1980. After earning his M.D., Dr. Hyman was an Intern in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and a Clinical Fellow in Medicine at HMS. From 1981 to 1984, he was a Resident in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA, where he was Chief Resident in 1982. Dr. Hyman was then a Clinical and Research Fellow in Medicine (Endocrinology) and Neurology (1983-84), and a Research Fellow in Molecular Biology (1984-1988) at MGH. From 1984 to 1987, he was also a Research Fellow in Genetics at HMS. Dr. Hyman has held numerous academic appointments at Harvard Medical School including Instructor in Psychiatry (1987-1989), and Assistant Professor (1989-1992), Associate Professor (1993-1998), and Professor of Psychiatry (1998). He was Director of Research in the Department of Psychiatry at MGH from 1990 to1996 and Director of the Division on Addictions at HMS from 1992 to1995. From 1994 to 1996, he was the Director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Initiative on Mind/Brain/Behavior. Dr. Hyman has sat on several committees both at Harvard and nationally. Most recently, he was Chair of the Executive Committee at the National Neuroscience Research Center at the National Institutes of Health (2000-2002), and Chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee for the US Department of Health and Human Services (2001). He is on the editorial boards of Neuron and The Neuroscientist, among others. Dr. Hyman has been the recipient of many awards, most recently the Heinz Lehman Award from the New York State Office of Mental Health, the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award from the US Government, and the CHADD 2000 Public Policy Award, all in 2000.
John E. Dowling received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He taught in the Biology Department at Harvard from 1961 to 1964, first as an Instructor, then as Assistant Professor. In 1964 he moved to Johns Hopkins University, where he held an appointment as Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Biophysics. He returned to Harvard as Professor of Biology in 1971, and he is now the Gund Professor of Neurosciences and Harvard College Professor. He was Chairman of the Biology Department at Harvard from 1975 to 1978 and served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1980 to 1984. He was Master of Leverett House at Harvard from 1981 to 1998 and currently serves as President of the Corporation of the Marine Biological Laboratory. Professor Dowling is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. He received the Friedenwald Medal from the Association of Research in Ophthalmology and Vision in 1970, the Annual Award of the New England Ophthalmological Society in 1979, the Retinal Research Foundation Award for Retinal Research in 1981, an Alcon Vision Research Recognition Award in 1986, the Von Sallman Prize in 1992, the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research in 2000 and the Llura Ligget Gund Award for Lifetime Achievement and Recognition of Contribution to Foundation Fighting Blindness in 2001. In 1987 he received a National Eye Institute MERIT Award, and he was granted an honorary M.D. degree by the University of Lund (Sweden) in 1982.
The Marine Biological Laboratory is an independent scientific institution, founded in 1888, that undertakes the highest level of creative research and education in biology, including the biomedical and environmental sciences.
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