Myron Arms Hofer (born December 20, 1931) is an American psychiatrist and research scientist, currently Sackler Institute Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons.
Through an experimental analysis of these sensorimotor, thermal and nutrient-based processes, he has contributed to our understanding of the impact of early maternal separation, the origins of the attachment system, and the shaping of later development by variations in how mothers and infants interact.
Hofer graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School (MD 1958), did his residency training in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and in Psychiatry at New York State Psychiatric Institute, followed by post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the American Museum of Natural History, before joining the department of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1966, where he began his animal model research.
In 1984, Hofer moved with his research group to the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and in 2000 was appointed Director of the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology.
[14] He then used selective breeding for high and for low levels of the infant trait, as a model for studying evolution and how it can interact with developmental processes in the creation of differences in adult temperament.