Ernest Harburg

Ernest Harburg, research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, and in the Department of Psychology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, retired from active faculty status on September 10, 1991, after a most productive research career.

Dr. Harburg received his B.S. degree in history from the College of the City of New York in 1951, his M.A. degree in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin in 1956, and his Ph.D. degree in social psychology from the University of Michigan in 1962. Beginning with his service as assistant study director at the Institute for Social Research from 1957-61 and study director from 1962-64, Dr. Harburg has served multiple roles at the University of Michigan. From 1964-70, he served as an assistant professor (1964-65) and associate professor (1965-70) of psychology and researcher in the School of Nursing. In 1965, he was also appointed research associate in the Department of Psychology. His long association with the School of Public Health began with his appointment as research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology in 1973.

Dr. Harburg's research interests and scholarly publications with a host of collaborators have covered a wide range of topics, including interpersonal conflict, urban life and mental health, rheumatoid arthritis, residential mobility, and correlates of smoking. But he is best known for his long-term programmatic empirical studies of various correlates and determinants of blood pressure -- a series of biological variables, racial, ethnic, and heredity variables, work status and satisfaction, age, personality traits, modes of coping, behavioral patterns -- and for his more recent work on intra-familial transmission of patterns of alcohol usage.

The Regents now salute this distinguished scientist for his dedicated service by naming Ernest Harburg Research Scientist Emeritus.