Albert J. Silverman, M.D., noted psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher and former chair of the U-M Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry, died of cancer in Santa Barbara, California, on May 10, 2002. He was 77.

In the mid-1950s, Silverman led research for the U.S. Air Force on space neuroscience and psychology, which rose from obscurity to prominence literally overnight in 1957 with the Russian launch of Sputnik and the dawn of the space race. He helped invent a device that used pilots’ brain waves as an oxygen-deprivation warning system.

Silverman was one of three founders of the Rutgers Medical School in 1963 and chaired its first psychiatry department. In 1970, he became chair of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School and is credited with redirecting the department’s research, education and treatment programs. Silverman returned to research and clinical care in 1981 and retired in 1990, continuing to make contributions as professor emeritus. During his career, Silverman sought to bridge the divide between the rising field of neuroscience-based psychiatry and traditional psychoanalysis. A research conference named for him has been held annually for 12 years at the U-M.

Gifts in Silverman’s memory may be made to the U-M Department of Psychiatry and sent to the Office of Medical Development, 301 E. Liberty St., Suite 300, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104-2251.

—KG

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