From the Director

John M. Oldham, M.D. Director Psychiatric Institute has had another banner year this year. Scientists at the Institute have once again demonstrated their outstanding productivity and value in exploring the biological and environmental terrain that links the mind to the brain, and their determination to learn how best to treat the disordered mind-brain.Their work has been recognized by federal funding agencies and during the period under review there were 42 NIH Career Development Awards and 7 Center Grants at the Institute.

NARSAD also has been most generous to researchers here and has supported research at the Institute at three levels. Three researchers received Distinguished Awards for the work they are doing, 10 were recipients of Independent Awards and 15 received Young Investigator Awards. Altogether, Psychiatric Institute scientists received close to $90 million from outside sources to conduct their research.* Honors and awards were again plentifully distributed among the staff this year, a testimony to the vibrancy and timeliness of our scientific efforts.

The Institute is a mature and well functioning institution. It has been a great pleasure for me to play an essential and longstanding role in shaping and maintaining such a stellar institution. I came here first as a resident in psychiatry, graduated, and returned years later as Deputy Director - and then became Director. It was and is a matter of great pride, to have had the privilege to learn, grow, and provide leadership to this outstanding Institute. Recently I was asked to Chair the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and, in March, I agreed to do so. I will take on my new responsibilities in Charleston in July of 2002. It will be difficult indeed to leave the Institute, but I look forward to the challenges at a new University where I can help to shape another Department of Psychiatry. Since this is my last opportunity to address you in these pages, I would like to thank the entire staff at the Institute and the leadership at the New York State Office of Mental Health for the help they have given me in maintaining the trajectory of our achievement. I wish you and our colleagues at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons even greater success.

Good-bye.

John Oldham


*This year for the first time the Annual Report will include the happenings at the Institute during the past 15 months. We have chosen to do this to have the Annual Report coincide with the State’s fiscal year and to have it more closely coordinated with Columbia’s fiscal year. However, to make the figures comparable to previous reports, we will report grant funding in terms of the usual twelve-month year. Next year, the Annual Report will once again cover a single year that will start on April 1st 2002 and end on March 31st 2003.