Ralph Waldo Gerard (7 October 1900 – 17 February 1974) was an American neurophysiologist and behavioral scientist known for his wide-ranging work on the nervous system, nerve metabolism, psychopharmacology, and biological basis of schizophrenia.
In his teens, Ralph beat the American chess champion playing simultaneous matches in Chicago.
Afterwards he went to Europe on a National Research Council Fellowship for two years to work in biophysics and biochemistry with A. V. Hill in London and Otto Meyerhof in Kiel.
They moved to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he helped to establish the Mental Health Research Institute.
In the next years, the institute grew to be one of the outstanding behavioral and psychiatric research centers of the nation.
[8] He helped to organize the newly forming Irvine campus of the University of California, and became the first Dean of its Graduate Division until his retirement in 1970.
Gerard received many honors, including a medal from Charles University in Prague, the Order of the White Lion (4th class) of Czechoslovakia, honorary membership in the American Psychiatric Association and the Pan Hellenic Medical Association; membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences; a D.Sc.