MNI Congratulates Dr. Srijan Sen!
At its February 18, 2021 meeting, the Board of Regents appointed MNI Research Professor, Dr. Srijan Sen, as the new Director of the UM Depression Center effective January 1, 2021. Sen takes over the leadership from founding Depression Center Director, Dr. John Greden, who is a research professor emeritus of the Michigan Neurosciences Institute and the Rachel Upjohn Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.
The primary mission of the Depression Center is to meaningfully advance our understanding of depression and rapidly translate research to improve the quality of life for individuals suffering with the disorder. Dr. Sen will provide leadership and strategic planning by creating and implementing a future vision; recruit, retain and lead center faculty and staff; and engage the U-M and broader communities to better understand and combat depression.
Dr. Sen is the Kenneth Eisenberg Professor of Depression and Neurosciences, a research professor in the Michigan Neuroscience Institute and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the Medical School. He also serves as associate vice president for research-health sciences in the U-M Office of Research and an associate director of the Depression Center.
After receiving his M.D. and Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Michigan in 2005, he completed residency training in psychiatry at Yale University. He was appointed assistant professor at the University of Michigan in 2009, and earned promotion to associate professor in 2015, and professor in 2020. From 2015-19, he served as associate chair for research and faculty development in the Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Sen has made seminal research contributions to our understanding of the biology linking stress and major depression and physician well-being. Notably, he initiated and directs the Intern Health Study, a longitudinal cohort study that assesses stress and mood in training physicians. Enrolling more than 25,000 participants from 100+ institutions in the U.S. and China, the project has produced high-impact findings across a wide range of interdisciplinary academic topics including genomics, mobile technology, gender and racial disparities and medical education policy. Work from the study has been published inJAMA, BMJ, Nature Human Behavior and other top journals, and covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker and other media outlets. His expertise in physician well-being has led to service in several national initiatives on this topic, including through National Academy of Medicine.