University of Michigan. Mental Health Research Institute.

Interdisciplinary unit established in 1955 to conduct a program of basic research in mental health and the behavioral sciences.

Please consult the history found in the finding aid for Mental Health Research Institute (University of Michigan) records.

The Mental Health Research Institute (MHRI) is an interdisciplinary unit affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Michigan Medical School. Established through the Michigan state legislature in 1955, the Institute was developed by a group of former University of Chicago scientists under the leadership of Dr. James C. Miller. The purpose of the Institute is to conduct an interdisciplinary program of basic research in mental health and the behavioral sciences. The Institute also has a teaching function, offering seminars and laboratory experience to medical and graduate students, psychiatry residents, and postdoctoral scholars.

The Mental Health Research Institute was first housed in offices of the Out-Patient Unit of the Department of Psychiatry. In 1956 the offices were then moved to the sixth floor of the Children's Psychiatric Hospital and later to 1137 East Ann Street, with laboratory facilities in the basement of the Kresge Medical Research Building. In 1960 the new Mental Health Research Institute building was dedicated at the corner of Ann Street and South Forest Avenue.

The directors of the Mental Health Research Institute have been: James G. Miller (1955-1967), Gardner C. Quarton (1968-1983), Bernard W. Agranoff (1983-1995), and co-directors Huda Akil and Stanley J. Watson (1995- ).

For more information about the Mental Health Research Institute, refer to the histories in Box 1 and the Annual Reports in the separate PRINTED MATERIALS subgroup.