Stahl Returns to Alma Mater to Establish Premier Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience

Stephen M. Stahl, ’75 MD, PhD, DMedSci (Hon.), DSci (Hon.), a world-renowned physician in the fields of psychiatry and psychopharmacology, is honoring his roots with the establishment of the new Stephen M. Stahl Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern.

Dr. Stahl and his wife, Shakila, generously funded the new center in 2024. The center marks a homecoming for Dr. Stahl, whose career was launched at Northwestern following his upbringing in small-town Ohio. Now, he aims to give back to the institution that helped shape his path, fostering future advancements in psychiatric research and education. 

The Stahl Center aims to boost research into novel therapies for some of the most pressing psychiatric illnesses of the 21st century, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The center supports investigators across Northwestern who share the common goal of understanding the neural mechanisms underlying such illnesses.

“The excitement is that the neurosciences have just exploded,” Dr. Stahl said. “In the old days, there were only a few targets for medications. Now, what’s happening is we get to understand the brain and what goes wrong in these illnesses. The future is bright, even in areas like substance abuse, thanks to new experimental animal models helping us to understand it.”

One population that stands to greatly benefit from such research is two-thirds of unhoused people who are living with serious mental illness. Many of these people are unable to shift their circumstances because of their psychiatric conditions, and they aren’t getting the care they need, Dr. Stahl said. Access to healthcare often forms the primary barrier to treatment, but gaps in the science remain as well. There is still great need to develop effective drug therapies to treat some of the most devastating psychiatric conditions, he said, and he hopes that the center will help.

“We are thrilled that the Stahls have partnered with Northwestern to launch the Stephen M. Stahl Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience,” said Sachin Patel, MD, PhD, center director, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Lizzie Gilman Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “Understanding the biological basis of mental illness is one of healthcare’s greatest challenges, and the center represents our joint commitment to advance our understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms contributing to severe mental illnesses.”

New insights into neuroplasticity and neurodevelopment are helping Northwestern scientists better understand complex mental illnesses. Another new frontier for these scientists is improving information processing in neural circuits. By targeting these circuits with specific neurotransmitters, they have found that they can alleviate some symptoms of serious mental illness. As they learn more about the circuits that mediate memory, cognition, and mood, they can identify the mechanisms that regulate these circuits and design medications to exploit them.

“That’s the great threshold of the next 50 years, perhaps,” Dr. Stahl said.

Dr. Patel praised the Stahls’ philanthropic investment in Northwestern’s psychiatric neuroscience program, acknowledging it heralds a new era for personalized therapeutic approaches for neuropsychiatric disorders.

“With the generosity of the Stahls, the new center will serve as a platform to elevate Northwestern’s national reputation in psychiatric research and support recruitment of top talent to the institution,” Dr. Patel said.

From Humble Beginnings

Dr. Stahl was raised in Bryan, Ohio, a town of about 8,000, and became the first in his family to attend college. He credits his mentors at Northwestern for the formidable foundation that enabled his accomplished career.

In 1969, he was admitted into the Honors Program in Medical Education (HPME), where he met his mentor, the late Albert Zeller ’66, MD, a professor of biochemistry who mentored him while he was an undergraduate. Thanks to Dr. Zeller and the opportunities afforded to him through HPME, Dr. Stahl published a number of impressive papers as a young student. The late Benjamin Boshes, ’31 MD, the former chair of the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry and, later, chair of the Department of Neurology, also provided crucial guidance in his early years. 

“I felt that, from the beginning to the end, it was a great program. And I feel I owe a great deal of gratitude to Northwestern for launching my career,” Dr. Stahl said. “It took me from nothing and catapulted me into the big time.”

A 1975 graduate, Dr. Stahl celebrates his 50th medical school reunion at Northwestern this year.

Shakila Stahl, too, was a first-generation college student and attended Georgetown University on scholarship, and now, the Stahls’ philanthropy aims to help students succeed in the world of higher education at Northwestern and other universities.

“Stephen and I just feel incredibly grateful and blessed for the opportunities that we’ve been afforded and also the opportunity to give back in such a meaningful way,” Shakila Stahl said. Today, Shakila is a member of the Georgetown University Board of Regents.

HPME stopped enrolling new students in 2020, but beginning in 1961, the program concurrently enrolled undergraduate Northwestern students at the medical school, truncating the number of years it typically takes to graduate. Dr. Stahl made the most of his time in the program, then went on to earn his PhD in pharmacology and physiology from the University of Chicago.

From there, Dr. Stahl trained in three specialties: internal medicine at the University of Chicago; neurology at the University of California, San Francisco; and psychiatry at Stanford University. A prolific author, he has written more than 60 textbooks, including the best-selling and award-winning textbook Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology and clinical manual Essential Psychopharmacology Prescriber’s Guide.

He spent the majority of his medical career in California, where he held faculty positions at University of California, Riverside; Stanford University; and the University of California, San Diego. He has also held faculty positions at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience in London; State University of New York, Upstate Medical University in Syracuse; and the University of Cambridge in England, where he received an honorary doctorate of medical sciences in 2024. He also directs psychopharmacology services and academic programs for the California Department of State Hospital System, where he leads initiatives dedicated to addressing violence and the decriminalization of people with serious mental illness.

“The Stahl family invites fellow alumni and mental health advocates to consider supporting the mission of the Stephen M. Stahl Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience,” Dr. Stahl said. “Northwestern Medicine is best poised to lead the charge for treatments for debilitating serious mental illnesses.”

For more information about the Stephen M. Stahl Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, please contact Andrew Christopherson at andrew.christopherson@northwestern.edu or 312-503-3080.