Steven Siegel

Dr. Siegel is a practicing physician-scientist specializing in the treatment of schizophrenia and psychosis. He comes to USC after 20 years at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had active roles in research, teaching and clinical care. Dr. Siegel received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Neurobiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1996 after completing an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Colgate University in 1986. He later completed residency in Psychiatry and a Fellowship in Neuropsychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty in 2001.

Dr. Siegel has made contributions to understanding the basic neurobiology of schizophrenia, autism, drug abuse and nicotine dependence, as well as making significant contributions in the translation of his research to the bedside. His laboratory uses animal models to evaluate EEG and event related brain activity, combined with behavioral and molecular studies. Additionally, his laboratory has established new methods for the treatment of schizophrenia by inventing long acting biodegradable implants, now under development for clinical application. His work has been supported by federal, state, foundation, and industry sources over the past 20 years. He has published more than 130 manuscripts spanning topics related to drug abuse, basic research in animal models of schizophrenia and autism, as well as clinical aspects of schizophrenia. He is on the editorial board of several leading journals related to psychiatry and neurobiology.

Prior to joining USC, Dr. Siegel also was heavily involved in undergraduate, medical and graduate student education. He founded and directed a highly successful graduate course on Translational Therapeutics (“Commercialization”), based on his personal experience with technology transfer taught across the Schools of Medicine, Engineering, and Arts and Sciences at Penn. He was also Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Training Program at Penn, as well as having an active role in multiple graduate training programs. He has made significant contributions towards fostering recruitment and retention of trainees from underrepresented minorities, and has served as the Principal Investigator of a P50 training core specifically designed to engage underrepresented students in research. Among many other awards, he has been named one of the nation’s outstanding clinicians by the National Association for Mental Illness (NAMI), has been the recipient of the Leonard Berwick Memorial teaching Award for the teaching of translational research and was recently awarded the Martin P. Szuba Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and Research by the Department of Psychiatry at Penn. He has also served on a variety of education and career development roles at the national level, including significant contributions to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Society for Biological Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association. He has also been an active member of Community organizations, having served on the board of his local chapter of NAMI, while being a regular contributor to their family-to-family support and outreach program.