University of Rochester Announces Inaugural Lam Professor of Music and Medicine
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Dr. David M. Greenberg to Join Eastman Performing Arts Medicine
The University of Rochester’s Eastman Performing Arts Medicine (EPAM) Center, a joint venture between Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, is pleased to announce Dr. David M. Greenberg as the inaugural Evans Lam Professor of Music and Medicine, set to begin in March 2026.
Dr. Greenberg is a cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist whose research explores music at the intersection of medicine, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. His work uses advanced computational models to understand how the acoustical elements of music interact with the human brain and emotion, with applications for personalized medicine and conditions such as autism and PTSD. His research is published in high impact journals including Nature, PNAS, and the American Psychologist, and he is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Music Therapy and Musicae Scientiae. He is the recipient of community service and early career prizes from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM).
“Dr. Greenberg is uniquely qualified with his varied experience in neuroscience, psychology, and his personal background as a musician,” shares Kate Sheeran, Joan and Martin Messinger Dean at the Eastman School of Music. “His appointment, and the incredible research it will bring, will have a deep and lasting impact on the fields of music and neuroscience.”
“Bridging the storied history of top-tier neuroscience and music programs at the University in an intentional way with Dr. Greenberg at the helm, will set the University apart in a space that aims to transform lives,” said John Foxe, PhD, director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience. “David is poised to lead and inspire collaborations that will transform our understanding of the impact music has on the brain and to innovate new ways of using music as a modality of care. His past work in autism also provides a unique opportunity to work directly with the new Golisano Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Institute. I am thrilled that Dr. Greenberg is joining the URochester community.”
As the Lam Professor, a position made possible by University of Rochester Board of Trustee member Evans Lam ’83, ’84S (MBA), Dr. Greenberg will develop a national and international research profile exploring connections between music and medicine. As the director of research, he will oversee and strengthen the research portfolio of EPAM, set the research strategy by collaborating with faculty across the University, secure external funding for large-scale projects, write and publish in highly ranked journals, and have active involvement and leadership in scholarly and professional activities. Greenberg will have joint appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Health Humanities and Bioethics at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and in Music Theory at Eastman.
Dr. Greenberg was an honorary research associate at the University of Cambridge in England, where he served as co–chief principal investigator on clinical music therapy trials in autism, and a Zuckerman STEM Leadership Fellow at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. For several years, Dr. Greenberg served as senior scientific advisor at Spotify, where he led a team of data scientists to bridge academia and industry—leading to features on Spotify Wrapped that reached over 130 million people worldwide. He is also the chief science officer and co-founder of CHIME Health AI Inc., whose patent-pending technology uses human responses to music to screen for neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. A trained saxophonist, Dr. Greenberg studied jazz performance at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.
“I’m grateful to the University of Rochester and to Evans Lam for their vision in creating this professorship,” Dr. David Greenberg said. “By building a bridge between a world-class medical school and a world-class music school, we have a rare opportunity—unimaginable just a few decades ago—to advance a truly scientific understanding of music and its therapeutic potential, and to translate those discoveries into health innovations that will improve lives for generations to come.”
EPAM, supported by Director Gaelen McCormick ’92E, currently has funded pilot projects in collaboration with the UR Aging Institute and the Pluta Cancer Center, as well as an affinity network of artists and research scientists who meet regularly to support the creation of new work at this intersection. EPAM also provides clinical music therapy sessions in the hospital, treats musicians who develop physical injuries, including Eastman students and faculty, and offers music in hospital settings to supports patients and their families.
To learn more please visit EPAM’s respective Medical Center and Eastman websites.
Pending Board of Trustees approval.
Media only:
Eastman School of Music: Jessica Kaufman, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications; (585) 278-4743; Â jkaufman@esm.rochester.edu
University of Rochester Medical Center: B. Chip Partner, Assistant Vice President, Communications; (585) 749-0536; Bruce_Partner@URMC.Rochester.edu
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About David M. Greenberg:
Dr. David M. Greenberg (Yeshaya David) is a cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist whose research explores music at the intersection of medicine, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. His work uses advanced computational models to understand how the acoustical elements of music interact with the human brain and emotion, with applications for personalized medicine and conditions such as autism and PTSD.
He was previously honorary research associate at the University of Cambridge where he served as co–chief principal investigator on clinical music therapy trials in autism. He has raised over $2.85 million in research funding and published more than 55 scientific articles in leading journals, such as Nature, PNAS, and the American Psychologist.
He is the chief science officer and co-founder of CHIME Health AI Inc., whose patent-pending technology uses human responses to music to screen for neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. A trained saxophonist, Dr. Greenberg studied jazz performance at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Dr. Greenberg serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Music Therapy and Musicae Scientiae and is a trustee and board member of the Music Therapy Charity (UK). He is also a member of the APEX Consortium at Cambridge, a major multinational collaboration investigating how prenatal biology, genetics, and sex-differentiated neurodevelopment shape autism diagnosis.
He has also built large-scale citizen science platforms that have engaged 1.78 million participants globally, including the Sound Mind Databank (formerly the Musical Universe project)—the world’s most extensive phenotypic database on music and mental health, comprising one billion data points from 350,000 individuals across 150 countries. This makes it possible to generate much needed research and tools for precision medicine for decades to come. This unprecedented resource will serve as a foundation for new breakthroughs and digital tools in music and medicine for decades to come.
In his TEDx talk in Ramat Aviv, Dr. Greenberg shared how his life’s work was inspired by the memories of his grandfather’s singing, which comforted him as an infant in intensive care recovering from a life-threatening condition.
About Eastman Performing Arts Medicine:
The mission of the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine Center (EPAM) is to deliver the collaborative potential of performing arts and medicine—two of the crown jewels of the University of Rochester—to the health care environment. Its current program is four-fold, providing: expert care to performing artists for chronic and acute conditions; inspiration through music and arts to patients in hospitals; support the well-being of patients through creative arts therapy; and basic research to investigate and document these therapies.
Current stakeholders in EPAM’s work include the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, the Memorial Art Gallery, the Institute for Music Leadership, the Eastman Community Music School, the Department of Psychiatry, the Office of the Patient Experience at Strong Memorial Hospital, the UR Aging Institute, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the Pluta Cancer Center.
About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprising more than 170 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, GRAMMY winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, more than 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
About the University of Rochester Medical Center:
With more than 32,000 part- and full-time employees, the Medical Center is the largest single component of the University of Rochester and centerpiece of its medical research, health professions education, and patient care missions. The main campus is comprised of Strong Memorial Hospital, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of Rochester School of Nursing, and Eastman Institute for Oral Health.  Under the UR Medicine clinical brand, URMC serves as upstate New York’s premier health care delivery network, including seven affiliate hospitals and anchored by Strong Memorial, an 897-bed, University-owned teaching hospital designated by the New York State Department of Health as a Level One Regional Trauma and Burn Center and home to Western New York’s only cardiac transplant program. Â