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Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award for 1987

Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff

Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff

 

Dr. Nemeroff was the recipient of the 1987 Folch-Pi award for work suggesting a widespread role for neuropeptides as neurotransmitters within the central nervous system, quite distinct from their neuroendocrine role as hypothalamic releasing hormones. His work focused on the extra-endocrine effects of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), neurotensin and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) using behavioral and neurochemical methods. Dr. Nemoroff received his MD and PhD (Neurobiology) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His residency training in psychiatry was conducted at both the University of North Carolina and at Duke University, after which he joined the faculty of Duke University.  At Duke he rose through the ranks to Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Chief of the Division of Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Nemeroff received the Jordi Folch-Pi Award in 1987 when he was an Assistant Professor at Duke University. In 1991 Dr. Nemoroff relocated to Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is the Reunette W. Harris Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.  His research has concentrated on the biological basis of the major neuropsychiatric disorders, including affective disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders.  His clinical research uses genetic, neuroendocrine, neuroimaging and neurochemical methods to comprehensively understand the pathophysiology of depression.  In recent years he has uncovered risk factors for depression in victims of child abuse.  He has also contributed seminal findings to the burgeoning area of research concerning the relationship of depression to cardiovascular disease and has identified predictors of specific antidepressant treatment responses.

Dr. Nemeroff has received numerous honors during his career, including the A.E. Bennett Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry (1979), the Judith Silver Memorial Young Scientist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1989), the Kempf Award in Psychobiology (1989) and the Samuel Hibbs Award (1990) from the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the Gold Medal Award and the Research Prize (1996) from the Society of Biological Psychiatry.  In 1993 he was awarded the Edward J. Sachar Award from Columbia University and the Edward A. Strecker Award from The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital.  In 1997, he recieved the Gerald Klerman Award from the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Disorders Association and the Selo Prize from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression.  In 1998 he was the recipient of the Research Award in Mood Disorders from the American College of Psychiatrists and in 1999 received the Bowis Award from the same organization.  He was awarded the Menninger Prize in 2000 from the American College of Physicians, the Research Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in 2001, and the Burlingame Prize from the Institute of Living in 2002.  In 2006 he received the American Psychiatric Association Research Mentoring Award and Vestermark Award.

Dr. Nemeroff served as the Editor-in-Chief of Neuropsychopharmacology  (2001-2006).  With Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, he is co-Editor of the Textbook of Psychopharmacology, soon to be in its Fourth Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association Press. He has served on the Mental Health Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Biomedical Research Council for NASA. He is past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and President of its Scientific Council.  He is chair of the APA Committee on Research Training. In 2002 he was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is currently the recipient of several research grants from the NIH, including a Conte Center for the Neurobiology of Major Mental Disorders, and has published more than 850 research reports and reviews