biology

Kathleen Merikangas

Kathleen Merikangas is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kathleen Merikangas rather than just read about it. In short: Kathleen Ries Merikangas is the Chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Branch in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has published more than 800 papers, and is best known for her work in adolescent mental disorders.

Key takeaways

Kathleen Merikangas belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kathleen Merikangas to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kathleen Merikangas from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kathleen Ries Merikangas is the Chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Branch in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has published more than 800 papers, and is best known for her work in adolescent mental disorders.

Early life and education Merikangas was born Kathleen Ries to F. William and Dorothy Campbell Ries. Merikangas earned her bachelor's degree summa cum laude in experimental psychology and music from University of Notre Dame in 1973. She received her master's degree from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, which was sponsored by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. During this time, she did her clinical training and internship at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in chronic disease epidemiology from University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health in 1981, focusing on conducting clinical research on the affective disorders. With the help of Career Development Award from National Institute of Mental Health, Merikangas did her postdoctoral work in population genetics and genetic epidemiology at Yale University School of Medicine.

Career Merikangas became a faculty member at Yale University School of Medicine, where she did her postdoctoral work. She worked as a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, Psychiatry and Psychology and the Director of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. During her time at Yale, she proposed the genome-wide case-control associations of disorders, and conducted large population studies of mental disorders. The perspectives article titled "The Future of Genetic Studies of Complex Human Diseases" that appeared in journal Science in 1996, which she co-authored with Neil Risch, has been cited more than 3,000 times. She left Yale in 2003. After joining NIMH after leaving Yale, Merikangas conducted large scale survey-based studies including the first nationally representative study of adolescent mental disorders. Her 2011 study on shyness and social phobia of American teenagers attracted huge media attention. Other areas of focus include eating disorders, bipolar disorder, suicidal behaviors, and substance abuse in adolescents.

Awards and honors 2017: Rema Lapouse Award for Achievement in Epidemiology, Mental Health and Applied Public Health Statistics 2015: Paul Hoch Award for Career Contribution to Research in Psychopathology Association 2015: NIMH IRP Outstanding Mentor Award

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kathleen Merikangas

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kathleen Merikangas claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kathleen Merikangas before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kathleen Merikangas ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kathleen Merikangas

In research: Kathleen Merikangas appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kathleen Merikangas in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kathleen Merikangas is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American psychologists, 21st-century American women scientists, American geneticists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kathleen Merikangas outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kathleen Merikangas in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kathleen Merikangas means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kathleen Merikangas out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kathleen Merikangas in simple terms?

Why does Kathleen Merikangas matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kathleen Merikangas?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kathleen Merikangas.