News & Events

Dr. Morton Beiser has been appointed Professor of Distinction in the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University.  One of Canada's most eminent psychiatrists, and most recently a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Dr. Beiser holds a long and distinguished record of international accomplishments in the areas of mental health, culture and immigration, ethnicity and public health policy.

"We are thrilled that Dr. Morton Beiser is joining our team in psychology," says Dr. Jean-Paul Boudreau, Chair of Ryerson University's Department of Psychology. "Dr. Beiser's international leadership in bridging mental health, culture, and community is an inspiring fit for Ryerson. His appointment adds a vital new dimension-psychiatry-to our growing department."

Dr. Beiser, a strong advocate of using scholarship to inform public debate and influence the development of social policy, is establishing the Culture, Immigration and Mental Health research centre at Ryerson.  In the psychology department, he will continue his current CIHR-funded research on the New Canadian Children and Youth Study, a longitudinal investigation of the health and well-being of approximately 4,000 immigrant and refugee children and their families in Canada, as well as Leavers and Stayers, a comparison between Ethiopian children growing up in Addis Ababa and Toronto.  Dr. Beiser will also contribute to Ryerson's graduate programs in psychology and in immigration and settlement studies.

"I'm honoured to be joining Ryerson's Department of Psychology, which in a very short period of time, has become an outstanding community of scholars," says Dr. Beiser.  "As a long time advocate of linking scholarship to practice, I'm also happy to be part of a university that's in the thick of things, particularly in making its programs in psychology, immigration studies, and health and policy studies a priority.  Situated as it is, in the heart of Toronto, a city where almost 50 per cent of the population is born outside of Canada, Ryerson is ideally positioned to contribute to the health and well-being of new Canadians and immigrant families while also advancing research and scholarship."

Concerned with public education, Dr. Beiser wrote and narrated programs on immigration directed to elementary and high school students, as well as a radio series for the general public. Recognized internationally for his leading expertise, he has held editorial positions on many leading journals, and served on scientific review and granting councils in the U.S. and Canada including the Epidemiology and Services Review Committee of the U.S. National Institutes of Mental Health. A consultant to the World Health Organization, he also chaired a federal government task force on the mental health of immigrants and refugees. He served as a member of the Canadian Multiculturalism Advisory Committee, a cabinet-appointed committee charged with overseeing the implementation of Canada's multiculturalism law and policies, and chaired the Medical Advisory Committee of Citizenship and Immigration Canada from 1999 to 2006. 

"It is a great honour to welcome such an eminent scholar to the faculty at Ryerson University," said Dr. Vappu Tyyska, Ryerson's director of the Graduate Program in Immigration and Settlement Studies.  "We welcome the opportunity to learn from his significant expertise and to collaborate with him."

Dr. Beiser is the author of 175 scientific articles and book chapters, in addition to authoring and editing four books including Strangers at the Gate (University of Toronto Press, 1999) and Immigration, Ethnicity and Health (University of Toronto Press, in press). He has given over 170 professional communications around the world and has received over $18 million in research funding from peer-reviewed sources including the U.S. National Institutes of Mental Health, Canada's National Health Research Development Program, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the WT Grant Foundation of New York. He has been principal investigator for a number of studies including the Refugee Resettlement Project, a 10-year study of the health and experiences of more than 1,300 "boat people" from Southeast Asia; the Flower of Two Soils, an investigation of mental health and academic achievement among 2,000 Aboriginal children on two Canadian and two U.S. reserves; Immigrants and Tuberculosis, an investigation of factors accounting for the high risk for tuberculosis among immigrants and refugees; Growing Up in Canada, a study of the children of the Southeast Asian refugees who took part in the Refugee Resettlement Project; and Community in Distress, an investigation of the mental health of 1,600 adult Tamils living in Toronto.

Recognition of Dr. Beiser's achievements has included an honorary membership with the Belgian Royal Society of Medicine (1975); the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation (New York) Distinguished Scholar Award (1974-1975); National Health Scholar and Scientist Awards from Canada's National Health Research and Development Program (1981-1999); the University of Toronto Beverley Distinguished Professor Award (1988); the Joey and Tobey Tanenbaum Award for Research in Schizophrenia (1994); the Rockefeller Foundation Resident Scholar Award (1995); the Canadian Psychiatric Association's Alexander Leighton Award for Research in Psychiatric Epidemiology (2002); the Queen's Golden Jubilee medal awarded by the Senate of Canada (2002); and an appointment (2006) as Chercheur Associe, Universite de Paris. In 2004, he received the Order of Canada.

Please contact Suelan Toye, Public Affairs, for a press photo of Dr. Morton Beiser.

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Ryerson University is Canada's leader in innovative career-focused education, offering close to 90 PhD, master's, and undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Arts; the Faculty of Communication & Design; the Faculty of Community Services; the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science; and the Ted Rogers School of Management.  Ryerson University has graduate and undergraduate enrolment of 26,500 students. With more than 68,000 registrations annually, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is Canada's leading provider of university-based adult education.

CONTACT:

Suelan Toye
Public Affairs
Ryerson University
Office: 416-979-5000 ext. 7161
stoye@ryerson.ca