William T. Carpenter, Jr., MD
Distinguished Investigator

William T. Carpenter, Jr., MD, is a Professor of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Director of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. He obtained his medical degree from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. After an internship at the North Carolina Baptist Hospital, he undertook postgraduate training at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He began his research career with the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Program in 1966, using neuroendocrine strategies to study the psychobiology of affective disorders. He has also been a collaborating investigator with the World Health Organization’s International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia. Dr. Carpenter is the Editor-in-Chief for Schizophrenia Bulletin and has served on the editorial boards of the Archives of General Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Neuropsychopharmacology, Psychiatry Research, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Schizophrenia Research, Current Psychiatry Reports, and the CD-ROM version of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology publication Neuropsychopharmacology: Fourth Generation of Progress, and has authored over 300 publications. Dr. Carpenter is Past-President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and participated in the founding of the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) and chairs the scientific program committee.
Dr. Carpenter’s major professional interest has been severe mental illness, especially schizophrenia, including phenomenology of the psychoses, the etiology, pathophysiology, anatomy, and treatment of schizophrenia. He has made original and fundamental contributions in psychopathology, assessment methodology, testing of new treatments, and research ethics. His special professional assignments include service on the NIMH Intramural Research Program Board of Scientific Counselors and as a consultant and reviewer for NIMH and National Institutes of Health on many topics. He chaired the NIMH Research Scientist Career Development Committee and the NIMH National Schizophrenia Plan Committee on Treatment Research. Dr. Carpenter has served as Principle Investigator on five NIMH-funded research centers. He provided expert testimony in the cases of the United States Government v. John Hinckley and in 1989 was a member of the State Department delegation to inspect the political use of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. He chairs the work group responsible for psychotic disorders in preparation of DSM-V. He has been the recipient of national and international research awards including the Lieber Prize from NARSAD. Dr. Carpenter was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1998.

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