The Department of Behavioral Neuroscience is one of six basic science departments in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University. It was originally established in 1957 under the leadership of Joseph D. Matarazzo, Ph.D., as a freestanding medical school division (Division of Medical Psychology) affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry. Four years later (1961), the school's Executive faculty unanimously recommended conversion of the division into a basic science department, thus completing the process of establishing the first Department of Medical Psychology within a medical school in the United States (see Matarazzo, 1994 PDF).

From the outset, the department assumed the responsibilities of a basic science department, emphasizing its role in teaching, research and research training, in addition to providing clinical services. The appointment of several experimental-physiological psychologists in the early 1960s fostered the initial development of a Ph.D. program in biopsychology. These faculty included Drs. Richard F. Thompson, Judson S. Brown, Robert D. Fitzgerald, David S. Phillips, Robert W. Goy, Charles H. Phoenix, and F. Robert Brush. The department admitted its first doctoral students in 1964 and these initial students were awarded their Ph.D. degrees in 1968 and 1969. Since that time, the department's graduate training program has continued to grow and develop while maintaining a strong focus in areas of research that fall under the broad heading of behavioral neuroscience. To date, the program has awarded about 54 M.S. degrees and 56 Ph.D. degrees. The majority of these students have gone on to pursue successful academic and research careers.

From the outset, the department assumed the responsibilities of a basic science department, emphasizing its role in teaching, research and research training, in addition to providing clinical services. The appointment of several experimental-physiological psychologists in the early 1960s fostered the initial development of a Ph.D. program in biopsychology. These faculty included Drs. Richard F. Thompson, Judson S. Brown, Robert D. Fitzgerald, David S. Phillips, Robert W. Goy, Charles H. Phoenix, and F. Robert Brush. The department admitted its first doctoral students in 1964 and these initial students were awarded their Ph.D. degrees in 1968 and 1969. Since that time, the department's graduate training program has continued to grow and develop while maintaining a strong focus in areas of research that fall under the broad heading of behavioral neuroscience. To date, the program has awarded about 54 M.S. degrees and 56 Ph.D. degrees. The majority of these students have gone on to pursue successful academic and research careers.