Highlights
Student Profile: Harvey Morris
As an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University, Harvey Morris was majoring in behavioral biology and pre med with the intention of becoming a psychiatrist or neurologist. But while working in a functional imaging laboratory studying psychiatric disorders with both MDs and PhDs, he realized that he was more interested in continuing his research than going to medical school. He worked in the lab for two years as a student and then, after graduating in 2000, he stayed on as a full-time staff member, developing cognitive tests to help measure the brain function of subjects with bipolar disorder. When it came time to apply to graduate schools, Morris was very selective.
"I applied to many schools and participated in many interviews," he admits. "I thought Pitt was the strongest. There was great research happening and an excellent NIH- supported graduate training program."
Morris came to the University of Pittsburgh in 2004 and began working with David Lewis, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and director of the Translational Neuroscience Program. Professor Lewis' work focuses on identifying what types of alterations in the brain would need to occur to give rise to psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia.
It was Professor Lewis who recommended that Morris apply for the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Fellowship, which he received in July 2006 to support academic year 2006-2007. The School of Arts and Sciences supplemented that award with a full tuition scholarship for the summer term of 2007.
"There are a lot of new discoveries happening in schizophrenia research," says Morris. "It's an intricate disease to study, because there are not a lot of animal models and our subjects are in treatment, so it's hard to accurately gauge the effectiveness of particular protocols. But the potential for making a contribution and making a difference is very real and that's exciting."
