The Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and the soon-to be created alcohol “czar” are also now under this office.

Paul Barreira, director of the new office—called the University Counseling, Academic Support and Mental Health Services—credits Hyman with the more streamlined structure.

“Basically the entire structure as it now exists—which is fairly unique across colleges and universities—this is directly attributable to his leadership,” Barreira says.

“Steve is very smart, extremely perceptive,” he says. “He really gets to the heart of the matter quickly and is decisive.”

DR. HYMAN GOES TO WASHINGTON

Hyman took on the position of provost fresh out of six transformative years at NIMH, one of the 11 National Institutes of Health (NIH). Hyman, according to colleagues, was a precocious NIMH director, taking the helm in 1996 at the age of 44.

“The choice of Steve was only unusual in that he was relatively young, but he had incredible credentials,” says Harold E. Varmus, who as NIH director helped recruit Hyman to lead NIMH. “He was highly articulate, very energetic, and popular in the scientific community.”

Many people who worked with Hyman at NIMH credit him with overhauling the institute’s mission by focusing multidisciplinary research on mental disorders such as brain diseases, rather than on the social or environmental circumstances that might contribute to such disorders.

This sea change in NIMH focus led outside mental health researchers, funded in part by NIMH, to shift their focus as well.

“He really raised the quality of the neuroscience research supported by NIMH,” says Alan Leshner, who was acting director of NIMH in the early 90s and director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, also within NIH, when Hyman was at NIMH. “But he also imposed a much higher standard on the clinical research. He wanted people to develop treatments for mental disorders that were evaluatable rather than believable.”

Hyman “transformed the Institute...by convincing hundreds of people to go in a new direction,” according to Eric J. Nestler, who is chairman of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and has collaborated with Hyman.

Colleagues say that at NIMH, Hyman was known for not tolerating “foolishness” or “mushy science,” which earned him a reputation for tough intellectual standards.

“The one thing that he has sometimes been accused of is not being kind and gentle enough,” Nestler says. “Personally, I think anytime anyone who has been offended by Steve should have been offended—it’s part of his effectiveness. Sometimes leaders are too kind and gentle and nothing gets done.”

Leshner attributes Hyman’s success at changing the course of NIMH to his leadership style.

“I suspect the people who were quite weak researchers were very threatened by him,” Leshner says. “Did everybody love every day of it? Probably not. But the place was better for him.”