The University Professorship of Psychiatry

University Professorships were created in 1961 to be awarded to members of the faculty “who have made contributions to the world of learning…[and are] eminent scholars who have demonstrated the breadth of intellectual vision which encompasses several aspects of the arts, sciences and professional fields. Their published works and professional activities must have attained wide recognition from well-known scholarly sources.

“The privileges and obligations of University Professors are to serve the University community and its educational programs broadly…with the most effective expression of their talents in instruction, research, and service.”

Aaron Beck, MD founded cognitive psychiatry, a discipline that has transformed the understanding and treatment of psychiatric conditions, and held the Professorship from 1983 to 1993. In cognitive behavior therapy, individuals and their therapists work together to identify and change unhelpful thinking, problematic behavior, and upsetting emotional responses. The approach has proven as effective as medication for treating a wide range of conditions including depression and anxiety. Dr. Beck received the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, the nation’s highest honor for biomedical research.

Dr. Beck attended Brown University and earned his MD from Yale Medical School. He joined the Department of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine in 1954. Throughout his Penn career, Dr. Beck has developed and championed the uses of cognitive behavior therapy. He has directed funded research investigations of the psychopathology of depression, anxiety disorders, panic disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse, and personality disorders, and of cognitive therapy for these disorders. Most recently he has worked in the area of suicide prevention and directed an international working group testing cognitive therapy for schizophrenia. He has published over 600 articles and authored or co-authored 25 books. Through his work, teaching, and mentorship, the Perelman School of Medicine has become one of the nation’s pre-eminent centers for cognitive psychiatry.