Israel Liberzon, MD
Theophile Raphael Professor of Neuroscience
Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology
Associate Chair, Academic Development, Department of Psychiatry
734-764-9527
Israel Liberzon, MD, is a Professor Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Michigan. After graduating from Sacklers Medical School, Tel Aviv University, Dr. Liberzon completed his post-doctoral training in physiology at Rappaport Institute, Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa. He then completed the Psychiatry Residence Program at the University of Michigan, and, since 1992, has been faculty in the University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience program. In 1992, Dr. Liberzon established the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) program at the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Medical Center, a program that has since grown and remained on the forefront of biological research of PTSD worldwide. Dr. Liberzon co-founded the Trauma, Stress, and Anxiety Research Group (TSARG) at the University of Michigan, which includes the Psychiatric Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, a basic science (wet bench) laboratory, a MiRRR genetic repository and a clinical research group.
Dr. Liberzon’s primary research interest centers on emotions, stress and stress related disorders like PTSD, particularly in the regulation and dysregulation of stress response systems. His work integrates cognitive, functional neuroimaging, neuroendocrinological and genetic approaches to study stress, emotions, cognitive-emotion interactions and the effects of emotions on decision making. In the last 15 years, under Dr. Liberzon’s leadership, the TSARG had be continuously funded with multiple NIMH RO1 grants, VA Career development and NIH K awards, VA merit awards, Army and DoD grants, and more. Currently there are over 10 active federally funded grants of various kinds awarded to Trauma Stress and Anxiety Research Group members. Dr. Liberzon has mentored multiple doctoral candidates, post doctoral research fellows and junior faculty members, has published over 150 articles, and has authored and edited several book chapters and reviews including: Brain Imaging Studies of PTSD in the International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma published by AC. Plenum Publishing in 2000 and the forthcoming Neuroimaging in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Post Traumatic Stress Disorders by Taylor & Francis.
He serves on NIH and VA study sections, served as a reviewer for Institute of Medicine, and Department of Defense Congressional reports as well as various international funding agencies. Until recently Dr. Liberzon served as a Chief of Mental Health Service at the Ann Arbor VA Health System, and currently he is an Associate Chair for Academic Development, and the Director of the Psychiatric Residency Research Track at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan. He is a Fellow of American College of Neuropsychpharmacology, served as a president of Psychiatric Research Society, and editorial Board member for leading journals like Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology.