This collection documents Dr. Fred Elmadjian's career as a research scientist and science administrator. His scientific work centered mostly on the endocrinology of stress. His administrative services at the National Institute of Mental Health focused on developing manpower for effective research into mental health and behavior. Elmadjian first envisioned, then enabled establishment across the country of interdisciplinary training programs which emphasized both the biological and the psychological knowledge needed for such research. The papers also contain transcripts of 16 audiotapes recorded after his retirement, which provide a rich personal account of his background, education, work, and especially his beliefs about the proper approach for a study of human behavior.

Fred Elmadjian, Ph.D. had two careers during his lifetime. First, as a researcher he focused primarily on neuroendocrine mechanisms and adaptive processes in stressful environments - in psychiatric patients, athletes, combat troops, chimpanzees being prepared for early space flights, etc. His numerous publications and reports, and the expressed gratitude of young protégés whom he mentored document the success of this professional phase. Then, after twenty years he switched to government service. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) first asked Dr. Elmadjian to develop programs that would train people for basic science research relevant to mental health, and train professional mental health personnel in the research methodology of the biological sciences. For the next twelve years, mainly as Chief, Biological Sciences Section, Behavioral Sciences Training Branch, he helped to envision and to enable the establishment of new interdisciplinary training programs across the country. Then Dr. Ellmadjian was promoted to increasingly broader policy-making positions in the Division of Manpower and Training Programs, but he continued to focus on the appropriate training of professionals to further NIMH's mandated goals. Two groups of remarkable letters, written at the time of his promotion in 1974, and of his retirement from NIMH in 1981, by NIMH colleagues, training program directors and trainees speak with overwhelming respect and gratitude about his achievements in broadening the perspective of research training in mental health and behavior.

5 cartons (7.5 lin. ft.) 1 box (0.5 lin. ft.)

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The Collection is open for research except restricted access to Box 6, which contains information on identified patients.