Robert Michels (physician)

Robert Michels, M.D., is University Professor of Medicine and of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.

A native of Chicago, Michels graduated from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University's medical school. After a residency and psychoanalytic training at Columbia, Michels completed a fellowship at NIH and returned to New York to be the head of medical student education at Columbia. After a brief stint as Residency Training Director at a Columbia affiliate, St. Lukes Hospital, Michels was named chairman of Cornell's psychiatry department in 1974 when he was just 38 years old.

During his seventeen years as chairman at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, Cornell's psychiatry department grew dramatically and became perhaps the most prestigious and competitive training program in the country. He became Dean of Cornell's medical school in 1991. Since retiring from the Deanship, Michels has continued his clinical and scholarly work.

He is the author of many articles and has co-edited multiple texts. His best known work is "The Psychiatric Interview in Clinical Practice," which was written along with Roger MacKinnon and published in 1971. Best selling in its time, a second edition was published in 2006.

While he has written widely and headed many local and national organizations, Michels is best known for his imposing intellect and his ability to decipher the underlying process in almost any situation. He is married and the father of two adult children.