Patricia Barchas (1934–1993) was a scholar committed to the study of the interaction of social behavior and physiological processes.
Patricia Barchas was a pioneer in the field of sociophysiology - the effects of social behavior on the brain.
While at Pomona, she met her future husband, psychiatrist Jack Barchas who served for many years on Stanford's psychiatry faculty.
The Patricia R. Barchas award in sociophysiology was established through a gift of a permanent endowment to the American Psychosomatic Society.
The goal of the Barchas family in providing the endowment is that the recipient of the award be an individual (or more than one individual if they constitute a team) who is making or has made significant contributions to the study of the ways in which social behavior impacts on the physiology of the body in humans or in animals.