Child Mind Institute’s Dr. Michael Milham Receives Prestigious Open Science Award from the Organization for Human Brain Mapping

The Award Recognizes His Leadership in Open Science to Advance Our Understanding of the Human Brain and Mental Health Disorders

NEW YORK, NY – Michael P. Milham, MD, PhD, vice president of research at the Child Mind Institute, has received the Open Science Award from the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), an international society dedicated to using neuroimaging to discover the organization of the human brain. The prestigious honor was presented today during a special virtual ceremony as part of OHBM 2020, the organization’s annual meeting.

A passionate advocate for the value of open datasets for the scientific community, Dr. Milham is an internationally recognized neuroscience researcher who is also the founding director of the Center for the Developing Brain at the Child Mind Institute — a major hub for open science — as well as a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist. He has been the driving and inspirational force behind a host of important open science initiatives that have helped to change the landscape of human and non-human primate neuroimaging. His efforts in open data, open resources, and collaborations have ushered in a new era in both clinical and basic science neuroimaging and the quest to develop biomarkers and new treatments for mental health disorders.

During a prolific and productive decade, Dr. Milham has led and supported several worldwide data aggregation initiatives across multiple laboratories for the purpose of open data sharing, and also launched and coordinated three large-scale data generation initiatives. He created the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI) as the open-source platform to make those data repositories, along with other contributions from 22 individual institutions, easily available. Among many other accomplishments, he also contributed to introduce the concept and relevance of data papers in the neuroimaging community and pioneered early examples.

Dr. Milham Mike spearheaded the creation of the Child Mind Institute’s Healthy Brain Network, a groundbreaking community-centered program is to collect data from and provide diagnostic consultations to 10,000 children and adolescents in New York City to further the study of child and adolescent mental illness.

“Mike Milham is truly a pioneer in open science and has shaped the Child Mind Institute’s philosophy of making our data from initiatives like the Healthy Brain Network readily available to the scientific research community,” said Dr. Harold Koplewicz, founder and medical director of the Child Mind Institute. “We have already seen important findings and even breakthroughs result from Mike’s work and leadership. All of us at the Child Mind Institute congratulate him on this well-deserved recognition by his peers.”

“It is a great honor to be recognized by OHBM, which has galvanized the neuroimaging community and does so much to foster collaboration and learning in this burgeoning field,” said Dr. Milham. “I also thank my incredible colleagues at the Child Mind Institute, who share a passion for advancing our understanding of the human brain and moving us closer to better treatments to improve the lives of children struggling with mental health and learning disorders.”