The Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 (UM) is an interdisciplinary research institute, which played a key role in the development of general systems theory. Formerly the Mental Health Research Institute, over the years it has developed a specific interest in neuroscience

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

 and biological psychiatry

Biological psychiatry

Biological psychiatry, or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as neuroscience, psychopharmacology, biochemistry, genetics and...

 and subsequently was renamed in the new millennium.

The institute was established in 1955 with the goal of "applying scientific methods to the study of human behavior." It became known in the 1950s for employing some of the initial members of the Society for General Systems Research

Society for General Systems Research

The Society for General Systems Research is predecessor of the current International Society for the Systems Sciences , known to be one the first interdisciplinary and international co-operations in the field of systems theory and systems science...

 (SGSR) such as the biologist and founding director of the institute James Grier Miller

James Grier Miller

James Grier Miller was an American biologist, a pioneer of systems science, who originated the modern use of the term "behavioral science", founded and directed the multi-disciplinary Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan, and originated the living systems theory.-...

, the mathematician Anatol Rapoport

Anatol Rapoport

Anatol Rapoport was a Russian-born American Jewish mathematical psychologist. He contributed to general systems theory, mathematical biology and to the mathematical modeling of social interaction and stochastic models of contagion.-Biography:...

, the physicist John Platt

John Platt

John Platt is a Principal Researcher in the Machine Learning department at Microsoft Research. Platt has worked for Microsoft since 1997. Prior to Microsoft, Platt had served as Director of Research at Synaptics....

, urban planner Richard L. Meier

Richard L. Meier

Richard Louis Meier, is an US regional planner, systems theorist, scientist, urban scholar, and futurist, who was Professor in the College of Environmental Design at University of California at Berkeley. He was an early thinker on sustainability in planning, and recognized as a leading figure in...

, economist Walter Cannon, neurophysiologist Ralph Gerard, among others like Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....

 and Richard F. Ericson

Richard F. Ericson

Richard Ferdinand Ericson was an American organizational theorist, and Professor Emeritus of Management and Director, Interdisciplinary Systems and Cybernetics Project, Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C..- Biography :Richard...

.

External links

• Website. The Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute (MBNI) of the University of Michigan. The formerly Mental Health Research Institute.