Alan Brown, MD

Alan S. Brown, M.D., M.P.H. is Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center, the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health. He is Director of the Program in Birth Cohort Studies at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Brown earned his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University and received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in schizophrenia research at Columbia, and received his M.P.H. degree in epidemiology from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Dr. Brown’s main area of research is on the identification of early antecedents for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism. Among his major findings, he was the first to demonstrate that serologically documented prenatal exposure to influenza, rubella, toxoplasmosis, and inflammatory biomarkers are potential risk factors for schizophrenia.

He leads 2 NIH-funded research grants aimed at identifying risk factors for schizophrenia and autism in a large national Finnish birth cohort, in collaboration with Turku University and THL in Finland. He also leads a large birth cohort study on the antecedents of bipolar disorder in northern California. Additionally, Dr. Brown leads a Conte Center Project on prenatal SSRIs and neuropsychiatric outcomes in Finland. He is on the core faculty of several research fellowships and has mentored over 30 trainees.

He is the recipient of several awards in clinical psychiatric research, including the A.E. Bennett Research Award. He has received numerous research grants as PI from the NIMH, NIEHS, NARSAD, and other funding agencies. He is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the WPA Section on Epidemiology.

Dr. Brown is an author or co-author of over 140 peer-reviewed publications, reviews, and book chapters.