Yasmin L. Hurd, PhD, Named Director of MD-PhD Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Yasmin L. Hurd, PhD, has been appointed Director of the MD/PhD program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Her appointment is effective April 1.
Yasmin L. Hurd, PhD, has been appointed Director of the MD/PhD program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Her appointment was effective April 1.
“We’re pleased that a scientist and mentor of Dr. Hurd’s caliber will be leading our program,” said John H. Morrison, Dean of Basic Sciences and the Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Professor of Neuroscience and the Willard T. C. Johnson Professor of Geriatrics and Adult Development in Neurobiology of Aging, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Dr. Hurd is a champion of translational research, and I am confident that under her leadership we will continue to train some of the world’s best physician-scientists.”
Dr. Hurd is a Professor of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Mount Sinai. She is also Chief of the Center of Excellence in Mood and Motivation at Mount Sinai’s Friedman Brain Institute. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Hurd was Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. During her tenure, the yearly student population that she oversaw doubled in size.
The emphasis on translational research is one of many assets that drew Dr. Hurd to Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Mount Sinai students have the opportunity to become stellar physicians and scientists because of this commitment to translational research. Dr. Hurd plans to further enhance and integrate translational research into the students’ training and to work towards organizing the training program so that students can get to start their careers faster.
“Mount Sinai School of Medicine students are a phenomenal group,” said Dr. Hurd. “I look forward to taking the reins as Director and continuing the many successes of the program and further developing its truly unique translational nature.”
In addition to her new role as Director, Dr. Hurd is a renowned researcher on addiction and related psychiatric disorders. She uses a translational approach to study the neurobiology of the human brain. A major focus of the Hurd Laboratory is on risk factors for addiction disorders, including genetics as well as developmental exposure to drugs of abuse. Dr. Hurd has been published in several prominent journals, including the Journal of Neuroscience, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Biological Psychiatry. She also serves as Chair of the Minority Health Research Committee (MHRC) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Dr. Hurd is active in several organizations. She has been a member of several National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections, served on an NIH Review Committee, and is a member of the MacArthur Foundation Neuroscience network. She is also a member of the American Society for Neuroscience, New York Academy of Sciences, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.
Dr. Hurd received her doctorate in medical science at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She became a Pharmacology Research Associate (PRAT Fellow) with the NIH and a Staff Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. She returned to the Karolinska Institute in 1993, where she remained as Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Graduate Studies until coming to Mount Sinai in 2006.
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