Rolf Loeber Named University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry

PITTSBURGH—Rolf Loeber, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has been appointed a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry. A Distinguished Professorship is the highest honor the University confers on a member of the professorate, acknowledging extraordinary, internationally recognized scholarly achievement in an individual discipline or field.

Loeber and his wife, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, came to Pitt in 1984 to cofound and codirect the Pitt's Department of Psychiatry's Life History Studies Program, which encompasses three longitudinal studies—the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), the Development Trends Study (DTS), and the Pittsburgh Girls Study.

The PYS has been tracking more than 1,500 inner city boys since 1987 to examine the development of antisocial and delinquent behavior from childhood to early adulthood and determine the risk factors that impinge on development. The DTS, now in its 15th year, assesses 177 clinic-referred boys yearly to document the course of disruptive behavioral disorders over time. The Pittsburgh Girls Study began in 1999 and is currently tracking more than 2,400 girls to examine delinquency, depression, and substance use over time.

Also a professor of epidemiology in Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health and a professor in Pitt's Department of Psychology, Loeber is a professor of juvenile delinquency and social development at the Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

In 2003, Loeber was awarded the Distinguished Contribution Award by the American Psychological Association (APA). He has been recognized as a Fellow by the American Society of Criminology, APA, and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He earned the Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology at Queen's University, Ontario, Canada, in 1972.

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