We are delighted to announce that Greg Siegle, PhD, has been promoted to Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After receiving a PhD in psychology, Dr. Siegle completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry before joining our faculty in 2001. Dr. Siegle also holds appointments in the Pitt Department of Psychology, the Center for the...

We are delighted to announce that Shaolin Yang, PhD, has joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Yang received his PhD from the Department of Radio Physics, School of Electronic Information, at Wuhan University in China. He received postdoctoral training from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Radiology and was a postdoctoral visiting fellow in the Neuroimaging...

Congratulations to Cecile Ladouceur, PhD, who has been named a fellow with the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Fellow status is awarded to members of the APS who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology. “Dr. Ladouceur is a widely recognized expert in developmental affective neuroscience. Her studies of emotion regulation in young people have a had substantial impact...

We are pleased to announce that Victor Villemagne, MD, has joined the faculty as Professor of Psychiatry, and Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD, has been appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Villemagne and Dr. Pascoal are widely recognized experts in Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers and will greatly enhance our innovative research program in this area. Dr. Villemagne brings to Pitt a wealth of experience and...

The annual UPMC Celebrating Senior Champions reception honors distinguished individuals for their outstanding accomplishments in creating a better life for senior citizens. This year, we are pleased to congratulate Richard Morycz, PhD, and Scott Lammie, who each received Senior Champion awards. Dr. Morycz (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Social Work) received the UPMC Senior Service Caregiver...

The Psychiatry Research Pathway (PRP) Symposium provides UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital residents engaged in research the opportunity to present their work to an audience of fellow residents, faculty mentors, and other members of our career development community. This year’s program included a talk from seven residents on their current and/or future research, followed by questions and feedback. Program Director...

This fall, early-career investigators in our Department have initiated several innovative National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded K-series career development research projects. We are proud to count these young scientists among the newest members of our faculty and anticipate that their research on psychiatric and substance use disorders will contribute much to the bright future of research in our field. Below...

Last week, 300 attendees of the 2020 TransPride Pittsburgh Health and Wellness Conference, co-sponsored by UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH), viewed more than 50 virtual presentations on topics ranging from gender-affirming care, suicidality among transgender adolescents and supporting young people during gender diversity expression. We spoke with three members of the Department of Psychiatry to learn more...

We are pleased to announce that Judith Morgan, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After completing a clinical psychology internship at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Morgan undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in affective neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry under the mentorship of Erika Forbes, PhD. Dr. Morgan’s research...

Benjamin Handen, PhD (Professor of Psychiatry), is contact principal investigator (PI) on a newly awarded National Institute of Health (NIH) MPI U19 grant with a budget of $109 million across five years. The project is funded by the National Institute on Aging, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the INCLUDE (INvestigation of Co-occurring conditions across the...