Herman Researches Stress and Earns Kudos from College of Medicine

James Herman, PhD, Donald C. Harrison Professor and vice chair of basic research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, was honored by the College of Medicine Thursday at a special event for recently being named a Distinguished Research professor (STEMM) by the university. Forty colleagues along with Melanie Cushion, PhD, senior associate dean for research in the college, and Dean William Ball, MD, were on hand to celebrate Herman’s research in the areas of the neurobiology of stress—how the brain processes stressful information—and the physiological actions that may result.  

Cushion and Ball presented Herman with a framed picture of CARE/Crawley Building as a keepsake. Herman shared his passion for research during a short presentation. Herman is director of the Stress Neurobiology Laboratory and UC Neurobiology Research Center. He also serves as associate director of the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute.

Dr. Herman is the principal investigator on three R01 research grants—all studying different aspects of how the brain controls stress activity and disease that are associated with stress—and a training grant from the National Institutes of Health, and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. He serves as editor-in-chief of the international journal Stress, holds two associate editor positions with journals and serves on several editorial boards. He has also served on several advisory board and national and internationals grant review panels.

Dr. Herman holds a PhD from the University of Rochester in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy. His postdoctoral work was performed at the Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan. He began his career in academia at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. He was an associate professor and the James and Barbara Holsinger Chair of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Dr. Herman joined the University of Cincinnati faculty in 2000.