WHO WE ARE - AN INTRODUCTION TO CET'S BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 

Dr. Michael Terman,
 President of CET, was graduated from Columbia University and received his doctoral degree in physiological psychology from Brown University in 1968. He is Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at Columbia, Research Scientist VI at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI), and Director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. For the first part of his career, Michael concentrated on laboratory studies of biological rhythms and sensory perception in animals, especially their reactions to daily cycles of light and darkness. In the early 1980's, when such effects were first demonstrated in humans, he turned in a clinical direction, with studies of the antidepressant effects of light therapy, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. He joined the faculty of Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and NYSPI, where he established the Clinical Chronobiology and Winter Depression Programs, in which several hundred patients have participated in treatment trials and studies of physiological responses. This work led to a set of new non-drug therapies including 10,000 lux light, dawn/dusk simulation and high-density negative air ionization. In 1988, he was a co-founder with Anna Wirz-Justice of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR), which he served as President (1991-93). With Douglas Holmes, Gustave Manasse and Cynthia Neely, he founded CET in 1994. Michael chaired the Task Force on Light Treatment for Sleep Disorders (American Academy of Sleep Medicine and SLTBR), and currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biological Rhythms and Chronobiology International. In a 35+ year collaboration with his wife, Dr. Jiuan Su, the Terman lab has produced more than 200 scientific publications.

Dr. Douglas Holmes
received the Ph.D. in Social Psychology from New York University, as a National Science Foundation Fellow. Following a year's position as Director of Research for the New York City Office of the Narcotics Coordinator, he joined the Associated YM/YWHA's of Greater New York as principal investigator of a demonstration project dealing with orthopedically handicapped children. There he developed a social research center that addressed a series of topics in health and education, including the first study of Head Start impact, the first demonstration of a congregate meals program for senior citizens, and the first -- and only -- study of drug abuse among hippies in comparison with matched groups of non-hippies. In 1974, Dr. Holmes founded Community Research Applications, Inc. (CRA), a non-profit social research firm with a full-time staff of 25. After 10 years, he moved CRA to the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale -- a 1000-bed nursing home -- where he created a major research division. Dr. Holmes has been principal investigator or director of more than 50 federally-funded studies, and has written three books and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. Reflecting his early introduction to automated data processing -- on an IBM 650 in 1958 -- several of his projects have designed computer applications for human service programs. It was in this context -- computerized data acquisition for patients undergoing light therapy -- that he met Michael Terman, and the two have collaborated on the design of enhanced lighting environments for demented elderly patients with disrupted behavior patterns and sleep.
Dr. Gustave Manasse
 received the Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University. His dissertation, "Self-Regard as a Function of Environmental Demands in Chronic Schizophrenics," presaged a career-long focus on non-pharmacological factors that facilitate social adaptation and behavioral success in the face of background disturbances. Gus served on the staff of Hillside Hospital, Queens, before moving to the City University of New York, where he served for 20 years as a Director of Counseling and Psychological Services. He is now Professor Emeritus of Psychology. In the 1980's, Gus coached Michael Terman's transition from the laboratory to the clinic. In addition to his organizing role in CET, Dr. Manasse was a founder and serves on the Board of Directors of New Horizons, a community and residential training facility for the developmentally disabled, operating in Orange and Dutchess Counties with headquarters in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Dr. Dan Oren
received the M.D. degree, with specialty in Psychiatry, from Yale Medical School, where he serves as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. He is Medical Director in Neuroscience at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. Following a fellowship in the Clinical Psychobiology Branch of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, he worked as a grants specialist in their extramural research program and as an analyst at the Food and Drug Administration. He has served as chair of the FDA's Psychopharmacology Advisory Panel. Dan's research and clinical interests include seasonal, atypical, chronic and resistant depression, clinical psychopharmacology, light therapy, sleep disorders and circadian rhythm disturbances. He has written numerous scientific articles and book chapters, and is lead author of "How to Beat Jet Lag: A Practical Guide for Air Travelers." He is a former president of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms. Dan serves as Medical Director of CET's Chronotherapeutics Consultants, formed in 2004 to advise the hospital and managed care industries on the implementation of light and wake therapies as adjuncts to drug treatment of major depression.
Elaine Tricamo, R.N.
was graduated from Queens College with majors in Psychology and English Literature. Her part-time employment throughout college, working with emotionally disturbed children, led to a full-time profession as a Special Education teacher at a school for schizophrenic adolescents and a career-long interest in the role biology plays in mental illness. She joined the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) at Columbia University Medical Center in 1976 (the very same year that marked the Institute's shift from a psychoanalytic orientation to an emphasis on biological psychiatry) where she served for 15 years as administrator of the Depression Evaluation Service. Throughout her years of monitoring clinical trials and data collection for many outstanding psychiatric researchers in a variety of investigative areas, she eventually became part of the process of designing studies and writing grant proposals. She met Michael Terman in the early 1980's when she oversaw the data collection for his first clinical trial of the antidepressant effect of light therapy. Following her service at NYSPI, she became a clinical associate in private practice, combining her experience in short-term psychotherapies with her expertise in psychopharmacology. She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology.
Dr. Anna Wirz-Justice
is Director of the Centre for Chronobiology and Professor of Psychiatry at that Psychiatric University Clinic of the University of Basel. She received the Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of London. After a fellowship at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, she and Thomas Wehr, M.D. received the prestigious Anna-Monika-Prize for their seminal work in the chronobiology of depressive illness. Anna introduced light therapy to Europe, and has published extensively on seasonal affective disorder and sleep physiology. She is a former president of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms. In 2002, she received the Scholar's Prize of the City of Basel, awarded for outstanding scientific career achievement. In a thematically relevant avocation, she has interacted with architects to inspire enhanced indoor lighting, and contributed to the prize-winning 2003 volume by Philippe Rahm and Jean-Gilles Décosterd, "Physiological Architecture," which was introduced at the Venice Biennial. Anna directs CET's Chronotherapeutics Consultants, formed in 2004 to advise the hospital and managed care industries on the implementation of light and wake therapies as adjuncts to drug treatment of major depression.