Richard Longabaugh

Richard Longabaugh is a social and clinical psychologist and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. A recognized leader in alcohol treatment research, he has served regularly on NIAAA advisory committees, including serving as the first chairman of the scientific advisory group on alcohol treatment and clinical research. He has published more than two-hundred research articles and books. He has been principal investigator on numerous grant-supported research projects. His best known study has been Project MATCH, a multi-center clinical trial testing the “matching hypothesis” that a better match between patient characteristics and type of alcoholism treatment would produce better outcomes. He received the Dan Anderson Research Award from the Hazelden Foundation in 1999 for his research contributions to the addiction recovery process.

Longabaugh earned his bachelors degree in psychology at Dartmouth CollegeFact|date=January 2008 and a masters degree in teaching and an Ed.D. in human development at Harvard Graduate School of Education. He then joined the staff of McLean Hospital, a division of Massachusetts General Hospital and psychiatric teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, in 1962 as an assistant social scientist. He became Chief of the Social Science Department there in 1966, serving until 1971. He spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow in clinical psychology at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute in 1971-1972.

In 1972, he joined the staff of Butler Hospital, one of America’s oldest mental hospitals and a teaching facility of Brown University, as Director of the Division of Evaluation and Research, a position he held until 1991. He also became an Associate Professor of Medical Science at Brown Medical School in 1972. He was promoted to Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (Research) in 1978.

When David C. Lewis founded Brown’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies in 1982, Longabaugh became one of the core faculty members and in 1986 became Associate Director. Since 2000 he has reduced his research effort to half time and continues as co-investigator on four ongoing studies.

From 1987 through 2000 he was Principal Investigator and Co-director of the Center’s NIAAA supported Postdoctoral Program in Research on Treatment/ Early Intervention for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He received Brown University’s Sharon Chauncey Award for his leadership of the postdoctoral program when he resigned this position. Over 50 fellows graduated from the program during the period of his leadership, many of whom have achieved positions of leadership in the addictions field.