Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience and Professor of Psychiatry, and in the Child Study Center and of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, received the 2021 V. Sagar Sethi, M.D. Mental Health Research Award at a virtual ceremony October 3.
The award was presented by the Psychiatric Foundation of North Carolina and recognizes Blumberg’s extensive research dedicated to the understanding of neural circuitry differences that underpin mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder.
The selection committee was comprised of Psychiatry Department Chairs from each North Carolina medical school — Duke University, East Carolina University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University.
The award was created with an endowment from the late Dr. Sethi, a long-time psychiatrist in Charlotte, NC, whose vision was to “honor a scientist for significant contributions to basic research in the neurosciences, psychology, or pharmacology at a molecular, cellular or behavioral level.”
In conjunction with receiving the annual award, Blumberg presented a lecture at the North Carolina Psychiatric Association’s (NCPA) 2021 Annual Meeting & Scientific Session, which was held virtually October 1-3.
Blumberg is Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program at Yale, which brings together a multi-disciplinary group of scientists to study the genetic, developmental, and environmental factors that cause mood disorders to develop new methods for early detection, more effective interventions, and prevention of the disorders and their associated high risk for suicide. This research includes the use of new state-of-the-art brain scanning methods. The program is also known for training young scientists to be new leaders in the field.