EUGENE MEYER III, Med 1941, served on the Hopkins faculty in psychiatry and medicine for nearly four decades, until his death in 1982. The dual focus of this professorship reflects his training and accomplishments in both fields. Dr. Meyer was an early leader of the Hopkins Psychiatric Liaison Service, which provides psychiatric consultation for medical and surgical patients. This service was one of the first of its kind and has trained many prominent consultation psychiatrists. Known for his fine bedside manner and his ability to make difficult diagnoses, Dr. Meyer had a keen interest in the psychiatric aspects of medicine and surgery, a topic on which he published extensively. He also collaborated with Dr. Milton Edgerton on studies of plastic surgery patients, and established free walk-in clinics to provide psychiatric care for inner-city residents in Baltimore. His study on the efficacy of short-term therapy in this setting found positive results, and similar programs have been established in other cities. Dr. Meyer’s sister was the late Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, who funded a Hopkins professorship in ophthalmology.
His wife, MARY BRADLEY MEYER, SPH 1961, was an associate professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health and was noted for her research on the effects of smoking and X-rays on maternal health. She died in 1981. During their lives, Dr. and Mrs. Meyer supported the university and hospital, and Dr. Meyer left a bequest both for this professorship and for an endowment fund for the Department of Neuroscience.
Held by Glenn Jordan Treisman
GLENN JORDAN TREISMAN is the Eugene Meyer III Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He holds a medical degree and a doctorate in Pharmacology. He is the Director of the AIDS Psychiatry Program and the co-director of the chronic pain treatment program. Dr. Treisman is internationally known for his engaging presentations, his scholarly defense of his psychiatry, and his vigorous commitment to the betterment of patient care for underserved populations. He is best known for his groundbreaking work in the field of HIV, where he has been described as “the father of AIDS psychiatry.” He is involved in the care of psychiatrically ill HIV infected patients and has been since early in the epidemic, and has described and raised awareness of the role of mental illness as a driving force in the HIV epidemic as well as a barrier to effective care. He is the author of The Psychiatry of AIDS, the first comprehensive textbook on the subject, as well as numerous articles on the issues of mental health in the HIV clinic. He was recognized for this work by the American College of Physicians with the presentation of the William C. Menninger Memorial Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Science of Mental Health in 2006. Starting with his PhD in Pharmacology and his background in geriatric psychiatry, Dr. Treisman has worked at the interface between medicine and psychiatry, and has become a noted clinical expert on depression, addiction, personality disorders, chronic pain, and the interaction between psychiatric disorders and medical illness.
As part of a lifelong commitment to education, Dr. Treisman directed the residency program in Psychiatry for nine years, and delivers lectures at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in courses on Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Pharmacology Clinical Skills, and the Physician in Society course, as well as lectures in the School of Public Health. He is considered to be an outstanding teacher and has received the Chairman’s Award for Teaching from the Department of Medicine. His lectures on psychiatry and medical ethics have earned him international invitations and eponymous lectures including the prestigious Mapother lecture in London and Findling Lecture at the Mayo Clinic. His defense of psychiatry as a discipline of medicine and his defense of medicine against the therapeutic nihilism of the current medical reimbursement system have been favorite grand rounds presentations at numerous medical centers, including the plenary ethics lecture at the Massachusetts Medical Society Annual meeting in 2006. He is invited to give grand rounds presentations throughout the United States, and is a favorite at HIV meetings and courses throughout the world.