Peter Kaufmann has either worked at or attended some of the most prestigious academic institutions in the United States, each stop a part of the greater pursuit to better understand our physical and behavioral health.
Kaufmann has spent time at both Duke University and Villanova, the latter where he served as associate dean of research and launched CHAMPS, a landmark study on the impact of COVID-19 on the health outcomes of healthcare workers.
He spent 34 years in various roles at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Washington D.C., (where he got to know some of the nation's top scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci), yet he has been happiest at UNLV because of the people he works with.
"My colleagues are not only some of the most dedicated and sincere people I've known, but the university is one of the most diverse in the nation and has welcomed first-generation and immigrant students from around the world,” Kaufmann said. “That diversity has contributed to a culture of open-mindedness.”
Kaufmann and his family immigrated to the United States from war-torn Lithuania when he was 10; a small contingent in the mass exodus of Eastern European immigrants caught in the crosshairs of Soviet rule after World War II.
“I’m a first-generation college student, and I’m also an immigrant,” Kaufmann said. “When you are a first-generation student, you experience some challenges, but success is possible with hard work. I wish I would’ve had that reassurance when I was younger. The amazing thing about human resilience is that we can accomplish a lot with persistence.”
As Kaufmann established his new life in a foreign country, the support he immediately felt from his new community helped to shape his personal ethos; where decision making is led with empathy and understanding. Now, as associate dean of research for UNLV’s School of Integrated Health Sciences, he approaches his job with that same kindness and compassion.
The result has been a boon for both the school and the university.
What drove you to pursue your interests in psychology and behavioral health?
They seemed like the natural things to pursue. Psychology has a strong scientific aspect of how we think and how our brains work to support memories, feelings, and emotions. The question of how people interact and relate, when you think of people who are living day-to-day in terms of income, and how their community and support systems are so important to sustaining their hopes and dreams.
When I began to think in college of what interested me, those concepts just naturally emerged as interesting things to study. We discover our natural tendencies that lead us to our careers, and that’s what happened to me.
How did your childhood experiences shape your educational future?
We came to Chicago from Lithuania, which had a very big Lithuanian population. The family that sponsored us to come to the United States had been in the same refugee camp that we were in back home.
I grew up in a blue-collar family with support from community organizations that assisted immigrants from eastern Europe. I was fortunate because there were people from all walks of life in this transition after World War II. And even though they had lost everything, they continued to create and sustain their families with a goal to re-establish what they had lost. Education was seen as a huge goal; upward movement through educational opportunities. I think that had an enormous influence on me, which is why I eventually pursued advanced degrees.
As soon as my father got a job working on the boxcars, we were able to get an apartment. My mother worked at Nabisco, which was very big in Chicago, and my parents helped put me and my sister through college. They did everything possible to support us. They sacrificed a lot for us to get an education. They enjoyed doing it, and we tried to make them proud.
What was your college experience like?
I got a scholarship to Loyola University-Chicago and stayed there for graduate school in psychology. In college I met my wife, who was gifted in mathematics — and I certainly wasn't. We complemented one another in many ways.
When I look back, everything seemed possible. We got married and had our first born immediately. I was faced with the fact that I now had to support my wife and child. So, I got a teaching assistantship, worked two additional part time jobs, and had a full course load for a couple of years. The two labs that I worked in were in physiology and neuroscience. They became what I call ‘lucky accidents’ because they shaped my interests and future directions in neuroscience.
The professor in one of the labs recommended I apply to the University of Chicago Ph.D. program in biopsychology, which was an important break, as the program also gave me full support through a training grant.
It was also the first time I was fully funded, but I felt very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. I have come to appreciate the importance of mentoring and support in our lives, and have become dedicated to helping others.
"Giving back" is not just a phrase — it is a commitment that pays back continuously.
How did you come to work at NIH?
In a sense, coming to NIH was another accident. My dissertation in grad school was on brain systems that support memory formation. The term "neuroscience" didn’t exist yet, but emerged right around that time and I was accepted into a neuroscience post-doctoral program at Duke. This was an exceptionally rich environment, with exposure to a broad range of research, from sub-cellular systems to behavior.
Duke was also the home to one of the world-class hyperbaric research facilities. It turned out that one of the greatest challenges in deep-sea diving is that high pressure disrupts the integrity of the nervous system, which develops seizure-like activity. I developed a system to study the excitability of neurons maintained in vitro under high pressure, all under remote control. There were perhaps four labs in the world that studied this problem: the high-pressure neurological syndrome, or HPNS.
My work was funded by a large grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and came to their attention. At that time, NHLBI was interested in pursuing research on the link between lifestyle, the central nervous system function and cardiovascular risk, and I had some experience in all of these, dating back to my days in psychology.
After the usual recruitment visits, I accepted a position to promote that interdisciplinary research program and never regretted leaving the lab. This was the realm of epidemiology and disease prevention, with strong underpinnings of mechanistic research. I was able not only to apply all of my experience but developed new directions, especially in clinical trials.
At NIH, I held several roles, including as acting director of the Office of Behavior and Social Sciences Research, which enabled me to achieve an increasingly global perspective.
What were some of your most memorable experiences working at NIH?
The high point of my career at NIH, from an experiential perspective, was testifying before the Senate appropriations committee about stress and heart disease. To my knowledge, I was the only program-level officer to have testified before that committee. This was around 2003. I had to write a briefing on stress and heart disease and testify in person on behalf of the NIH.
Even more important was my participation in a scientific exchange with the Myasnikov Cardiology Center in Moscow, which took me to Russia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Armenia — experiences that I will never forget. At the peak of the Cold War, that exchange program was one of the few to continue and established some contact that I was able to maintain after the Baltic States re-established their independence.
At NIH, I was fortunate to launch some seminal studies, clinical trials for the prevention of hypertension, treatment of stress, and the treatment of depressive symptoms in patients after a heart attack. I worked with some of the best scientists inside and outside NIH. My favorite projects, however, remains the summer institute on randomized clinical trials involving behavioral interventions, which I launched 24 years ago and has now trained almost 1,000 fellows in clinical trials methods; and the Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities, a $50 million program designed to study not only the causes of health disparities but to evaluate interventions to alleviate them.
Why did you choose to come to UNLV?
As an R1 institution, UNLV has much to offer, and the School of Integrated Health Sciences is more closely aligned with my interests at the intersection of physical and behavioral health. The Department of Brain Health has a cutting-edge program in degenerative disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s, under the ambitious leadership of Jefferson Kinney and Dr. Jeffrey Cummings.
The Department of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences is one of the best in the nation, and the Department of Physical Therapy and the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences are not far behind. The School of Integrated Health Sciences has unlimited potential to become a leader in its fields.
What do you love about the research prospects within the School of Integrated Health Sciences?
We have a superb faculty and exceptional leadership from the top down. Our research support is increasing, with increasing applications to NIH and commensurate success. Overall, the workplace atmosphere here is superb, which is essential for success in the complex research environment.
You have only been here for two years, but what have you come to learn about UNLV and the greater Las Vegas community?
Las Vegas and UNLV have exceeded my expectations, in large part because of the quality of the people I work with. It is a dynamic region, undergoing considerable growth as an entertainment capital but also academically. We are going to have an impact not just on Nevada, but the entire nation.
