ESTHER M. STERNBERG received her M.D. and Rheumatology training at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and was on the faculty at Washington University, St. Louis, MO, before joining the National Institutes Health in 1986. Currently Chief of the Section on Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Sternberg is also Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program, NIMH/NIH and Co- Chair of the NIH Intramural Program on Research in Women’s Health.
Dr. Sternberg is internationally recognized for her discoveries in brain-immune interactions and the brain’s stress response in diseases including arthritis: the science of the mind-body interaction. She publishes numerous original scientific articles, reviews and textbook chapters in leading scientific journals and authored the popular book The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions.
She has received the Public Health Service Superior Service Award; Arthritis Foundation William R. Felts Award; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services PHS Staff Recognition Award; FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation; NIMH Director’s Merit Award; was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and a committee of the Institute of Medicine; testified before Congress; was a World Health Organization Advisor and member of the National Library of Medicine’s Literature Selection Technical Review (Medline) Committee.
Dr. Sternberg lectures and chairs conferences nationally and inter nationally, including the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.), Nobel Forum (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm); is past-President of the International Society for Neuroimmunomodulation; co-directed the NLM Exhibition on “Emotions and Disease” (1996) and is featured in the NLM’s Exhibition on Women in Medicine (2004-05).
