The National Institutes of Health has appointed Joshua Gordon, an associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, as director of the National Institute of Mental Health effective September.
Gordon, who is also a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, will lead NIMH’s mental illness research, NIH said Thursday.
“Josh is a visionary psychiatrist and neuroscientist with deep experience in mental health research and practice,” said Francis Collins, NIH director.
“He is exceptionally well qualified to lead the NIMH research agenda to improve mental health and treatments for mental illnesses.”
NIMH supports 2,000 research grants and contracts at local and international universities and other institutions and 300 scientists under the NIMH intramural research program.
Gordon currently serves as the associate director of the Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute Adult Psychiatry Residency Program and is a member of the Hope for Depression Research Foundation’s depression task force.
He has studied the correlation between mutations related to psychiatric disease and particular behaviors when he joined Columbia University in 2004 and pioneered the methodology to study brain plasticity in the visual systems of mice for his Ph.D. thesis.