In Memoriam

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Ming T. Tsuang, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc 1931-2026 (PDF)

Ming T. Tsuang passed away peacefully at his home in La Jolla, CA, USA, on March 18, 2026, at the age of 94. Professor Tsuang was a Fellow Emeritus of the ACNP and was accepted into membership in 1993. Dr. Tsuang was very broadly trained, developing expertise in the disciplines of psychiatry, genetics, biostatistics, and epidemiology. He received his M.D. at the National Taiwan University, his Ph.D. in psychiatric genetics at the University of London, and his Sc.D. in psychiatric epidemiology at the University of London. After completing his international research training, Dr. Tsuang under took a long career of research at various American institutions to establish what would become the scientific foundations of the field of psychiatric genetics and epidemiology. He first worked briefly at Washington University in St. Louis and then at the University of Iowa where he initiated the seminal “Iowa 500” and “Iowa non-500” family studies of major psychoses. Next, he moved to Brown University, where he helped initiate the New England Family Study, and then he moved to Boston, where he served as the Stanley Cobb Endowed Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director and founder of the Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics in the Harvard School of Public Health, and Superintendent at Massachusetts Mental Health Center. After nearly two decades at Harvard, Dr. Tsuang joined the University of California as a “University Professor,” the highest honor that can be bestowed on faculty by the University of California Board of Regents. Reserved for scholars of international distinction who are recognized and respected as teachers of exceptional quality, the University Professor title had, at that time, been given only 33 times in the history of the University of California system. He most recently served as University Professor, Received: 17 June 2026 Accepted: 17 June 2026 Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Genomics Endowed Profes sor, and Director and founder of the Center for Behavioral Genomics at the University of California, San Diego.

Jon Kar Zubieta, M.D., Ph.D. 1962-2026 (PDF)

The field of psychiatric neuroscience was saddened to learn of the premature passing of Jon Kar Zubieta on 1 June 2026. Dr Zubieta was a Member Fellow and was accepted into ACNP membership in 2005. Jon Kar received his MD and PhD from Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain. He did his residency training at Michigan in 1988, followed by a nuclear medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins. He returned to Michigan as an assistant professor in 1995, with appointments in the department of psychiatry and the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute (then called Mental Health Research Institute). He rose to full professor in the departments of psychiatry and radiology in 2007 at Michigan, and he became the inaugural Phil Jenkins Professor in 2006. Among many roles, he served as associate chair for research from 2008 until he left Michigan to take on the chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Utah in 2015. After several years there, he moved to the East Coast and the Boston area, where he was chair of psychiatry at Newton-Wellesley, Mass General Brigham system, before retiring in the past year. Through his career, he mentored dozens of early-career neuroscientists, and he served on the Scientific Advisory Council for the National Institute on Drug Abuse and as an associate editor for Biological Psychiatry. Jon Kar’s research covered a broad range of topics—depression, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, pain, and the placebo response. His work primarily utilized positron emission tomogra phy (PET) imaging with selective radioligands to map mu-opioid receptor (MOR) activity in the human brain during experimentally induced pain and emotional challenges. Jon Kar’s integrative approach, bridging neuroimaging, neurochemistry, genetics, and clinical psychiatry, has been foundational in establishing the opioid and dopamine systems as key modulators of pain, emotion, and treatment expectancy.

Shigeto Yamawaki, M.D., Ph.D. 1954–2026 (PDF)

Professor Shigeto Yamawaki, ACNP Fellow Emeritus, former President of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP), Founding President of the Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (AsCNP), and former President of the Japanese Society of Neuropsychopharmacology (JSNP), passed away on June 8, 2026. Professor Yamawaki was one of the most influential leaders in international neuropsychopharmacology and biological psychiatry. Throughout a distinguished academic career spanning more than four decades, he combined scientific excellence, visionary leadership, and an unwavering commitment to improving the lives of patients suffering from mental illness. A lifelong member of Hiroshima University, he established one of Japan’s leading centers for biological psychiatry and translational neuroscience. His scientific work evolved continuously throughout his career. Early studies demonstrated that chronic lithium treatment increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in the brain, helping to establish neurotrophic mechanisms underlying mood stabilization [1]. He later showed that environmental stress can induce epigenetic alterations in BDNF regulation, linking stress, neuroplasticity, and vulnerability to depression [2]. Professor Yamawaki was also among the pioneers who introduced modern neuroimaging approaches into Japanese psychiatry.

Roger E. Meyer, M.D. 1938-2026 (PDF)

Dr. Meyer was a Fellow Emeritus and was accepted into ACNP membership in 1973. Roger Meyer graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1962, interned at the King County Hospital (Seattle, WA), and then entered psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (Harvard Medical School) in 1963–66 followed by 2 years at the Center for Studies of Narcotics and Drug Abuse where became Acting Chief of the Center, He then returned to Boston, first as a faculty member and researcher at Boston University department of Psychiatry working with Dr. Conan Kornetsky and then at Harvard’s McLean Hospital working with Drs. Jack Mendelssohn, Nancy Mello and Steve Mirin. During this period Roger developed clinical and animal model behavioral paradigms for the assess ment of pharmacotherapy in the treatment of heroin addiction. He also served as a two day/week consultant to the White House Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention from 1971 to 1972. Roger was recruited by the University of Connecticut in 1977 where he became Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and developed and led a NIAAA funded Alcohol Research Center (1978–1993). From 1989 to 1992, he also served as Executive Dean at UConn. He spent the 1992–1993 academic year on sabbatical at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Judith L. Rapoport, M.D. 1933–2026 (PDF)

Judy Rapoport, who was elected to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) in 1977, became its President in 2008, and was a Fellow Emeritus, passed away on March 7, 2026. She leaves her husband Stanley Rapoport, a physician whom she met when they were students at Harvard Medical School and was Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, sons Erik and Stuart Rapoport, and grandsons Ty, Lukas, Maxime and Adrien. Judy’s NIMH team contributed to the understanding and treatment of ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and childhood onset schizophrenia. In a placebo-controlled trial, she demonstrated that the tricyclic antidepressant clomipramine was effective in child and adolescent OCD, leading to its FDA approval. One of her more than 300 publications, “The Boy who Couldn’t Stop Washing,” a popular New York Time’s best seller, chronicled experiences of OCD patients and showed how the disease causes rational people to behave irrationally. Her team later used MRI to show that the human brain continues to grow throughout adolescence, and that many childhood and adolescent neuropsychiatric disorders are associated with abnormal growth trajectories. For example, they reported that childhood onset schizophrenia is accompanied by accelerated loss of cortical grey matter during adolescence and responds to clomipramine. Pluripotent cells from these patients are used now to decipher the genetics of schizophrenia.

William H. Morse, Ph.D. 1928–2026 (PDF)

William Herbert Morse died on February 28, 2026, while hospitalized near his home in Gig Harbor, Washington. Dr. Morse was a Member Emeritus and was accepted into ACNP membership in 1979. Morse attended college at the University of Virginia, where he studied with the psychologist Frank W. Finger, and earned a BA (1950) and an MA (1952) in psychology. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in psychology at Harvard University in B. F. Skinner’s laboratory. His time at Harvard working with Skinner was exceedingly influential. Morse found behavior controlled by schedules of reinforcement to be fascinating and capable of elucidating many of the seemingly enigmatic aspects of behavior. He authored a definitive analysis of performances under schedules of reinforcement [1], and their continuing study was to occupy his time and interests for the remainder of his research career. B.F. Skinner [2], looking back at that period remarked: I think Bill and I carried out the most elegant experiments I have ever had a part in — beautifully designed and, I think, terribly important. But Bill doesn’t like to write papers, and I was by that time thoroughly immersed in programmed instruction and teaching machines, and we never published more than half of our results. But it gives me a wonderful sense of quiet power to realize that there are some very important things about the behavior of organisms which only Bill Morse and I know.