The Origins of Mental Illness

Daniel S. Pine ’85, a section chief at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and a leading researcher on mood and anxiety disorders in young people, will deliver the Scholars’ Convocation at noon Wednesday, March 5.

Pine’s talk, “Seeking the Origins of Mental Illness and Finding Our Humanity,” will take place in the Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center, Room 101. The free event is open to the public.

Pine is chief of the Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience at NIMH. He and his team at the NIMH Intramural Research Program work to understand stress and anxiety in children and adolescents and develop novel treatments for pediatric emotional problems. Pine’s most recent work examines how mood and anxiety disorders in young people are associated with underlying abnormalities of various regions of the brain. 

Before joining the NIMH, Pine spent 10 years teaching, training, and conducting research at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He has chaired the Child and Adolescent Diagnosis Group for the DSM-5 Task Force and also was chair of the Psychopharmacologic Drug Advisory Committee for the Food and Drug Administration.

The author of more than 350 peer-reviewed papers, Pine has received a number of awards for his work, including the Joel Elkes Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Blanche Ittelson Award from the American Psychiatric Association, and the Ruane Prize from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.