Bradley Campus Research Unit

Eric Morrow, MD, PhD Honored

Eric Morrow, MD, PhD, of Brown University, was one of 102 recipients of the 2017 Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering—the government’s highest honor for a young scientist. The award was bestowed in recognition of his work on understanding and improving treatments for psychiatric conditions including autism and severe intellectual disability. President Barack Obama said in the announcement, “These innovators are working to help keep the United States on the cutting edge, showing that federal investments in science lead to advancements that expand our knowledge of the world around us and contribute to our economy.”

Dr. Morrow is a co-founder of The Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research & Treatment (RI-CART), which has been instrumental in bringing together communities of patients and families, researchers, educators and clinicians throughout Rhode Island with the goal of enhancing research on autism, as well as improving services, treatment and advocacy for people of all ages in Rhode Island dealing with autism. This unique program has attracted national attention and funding.

In 2014 Dr. Morrow was the recipient of the Society of Biological Psychiatry’s A.E. Bennett Research Award in clinical/translational research. The Society of Biological Psychiatry offered Morrow an additional cash award of $5,000 to recognize his contributions to date and help to further his research efforts.

Morrow’s research focuses on normal molecular mechanisms of brain development, and genetic perturbations that underlie disorders of human cognitive development. He is the director of the Developmental Disorders Genetics Research Program, which seeks to identify genes associated with autism and intellectual disability so that it can be detected and diagnosed earlier and more accurately and treated more effectively.