The Karl E. Rickels Professorship of Psychiatry II

This Professorship was established in 2022, when the value of the endowment of the Karl E. Rickels Professorship of Psychiatry had increased sufficiently to support a second professorship. The original Professorship was created in 1993 by Karl Rickels, MD, the Stuart and Emily Mudd Professor of Human Behavior and Reproduction at the Perelman School of Medicine, to honor the memory of his father, Karl Eduard Rickels, PhD (1895–1971). 

Karl Eduard Rickels was the successful CEO of a chocolate company in Germany, as well as an economist, poet, musician/composer, philosopher, and fine artist. His unfulfilled dream to study medicine was realized by his three children who, through the encouragement and support of their father, pursued careers as physicians. The Professorship stands as a legacy in loving memory of the father of Karl Rickels, MD. 

Current Chairholder
Matthew Keyser, MD, PhD

Dr. Kayser is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose work focuses on the regulation and function of sleep during early life. In addition, as a practicing clinician, Dr. Kayser has launched basic and translational studies at the intersection of sleep and psychiatric disease. His long-term goal is to identify molecular targets to harness sleep as an untapped therapeutic modality in disorders across the lifespan.

Dr. Kayser’s group primarily uses the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to study how early life experiences impact neural circuit development and behaviors. His work has demonstrated that sleep in early life is required for sculpting neural circuits underlying complex behaviors. His group has identified genes regulating the development of sleep circuits, with a particular interest in the link between sleep and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

Work from Dr. Kayser’s laboratory has been recognized with the NIH New Innovator Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Neuroscience Fellowship, and others. Dr. Kayser also serves as Training Director of an NIH-funded research track in the University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychiatry Residency Program. He is passionate about mentoring, training, and advocating for the next generation of physician-scientist psychiatrists.