Campbell/Spillane Substance Use Research - Interview with Roy Pickens

Abstract

Roy W. Pickens, PhD, received his doctoral degree in Psychology from the University of Mississippi in 1965. He received post-doctoral training at the University of Minnesota, as a fellow in a USPHS Psychopharmacology Training Program. After a year in the program, he joined the University of Minnesota faculty in 1966 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, with adjunct appointments in the Departments of Pharmacology and Psychology. In the mid-1970s, Dr. Pickens co-founded a clinical research ward at the University of Minnesota Hospital to study human drug dependence. The research led to a NIDA-supported treatment program which focused on alcohol and sedative dependence in women and the establishment of a laboratory for the experimental analysis of tobacco smoking. In the late 1970s, Dr. Pickens accepted a consultantship at the Hazelden Foundation. His studies there clearly established substantial genetic influences on the abuse of both alcohol and other drugs. Dr. Pickens left Minnesota in 1985 for a position as Director of the Division of Clinical Research at NIDA. In 1987, Dr. Pickens was appointed as the NIDA Associate Director for AIDS to address the rapidly growing problem of HIV infection being spread by needle sharing, unprotected sexual activity, and in utero transmission (primarily) by individuals addicted to heroin. In 1989, Dr. Pickens assumed the Directorship of the NIDA Intramural Research Program, then called the Addiction Research Center, which had previously relocated from Lexington, KY to Baltimore, MD. After stepping down as the Director of the NIDA IRP in 1994, Dr. Pickens assumed the position of Chief of the Clinical Neurogenetics Section where he continued to pursue his research on the behavioral and molecular genetics of drug dependence. Dr. Pickens returned to academia in 1999 as a Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Vice President of Research at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He was hired with the primary objective of developing new research initiatives of a large-scale or interdisciplinary nature and to enhance federal funding at the University. He cultivated interest in both basic and clinical women’s health research, spearheading VCU’s launch of a NIH-funded training program dedicated to Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health. During his career Dr. Pickens received a number of awards, including a USPHS Special Recognition Award in 1989 and in 1992 the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award (the second highest award in government service) given for his extramural clinical research, his work on AIDS, and his administration of the NIDA IRP. He was also given the Michael Morrison Award from The College on Problems of Drug Dependence for his government service in 1999 and shared with Travis Thompson the P.B. Dews Lifetime Achievement Award for Research in Behavioral Pharmacology in 2016 awarded by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Pickens died May 25, 2022. Sources: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-022-06177-7 Accessed 16 Mar 2023. https://www.aspet.org/aspet/news/news/2022/05/25/obituary-dr.-roy-w.-pickens-(1939---2022) Accessed 16 Mar 2023.