The University of Minnesota has hired a prominent California scholar to head its Department of Psychiatry, whose previous chairman stepped down last year amid a barrage of criticism over ethics lapses in research using human subjects.

Dr. Sophia Vinogradov is a schizophrenia researcher who has been vice chairwoman of the Psychiatry Department at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, often ranked as one of the nation's top medical schools. She will begin her new duties in August.

Vinogradov replaces Dr. Charles Schulz, who retired last year after a scathing legislative audit described a "culture of fear and retaliation" within the department as well as ethical breaches concerning the recruitment of research subjects with diminished mental capacity. The audit was one of several reviews to raise questions about research protocols and faculty members' conflicts following the death of Dan Markingson, who killed himself in 2004 while participating in a schizophrenia drug trial at the U.

Last month, Legislative Auditor James Nobles called for a third investigation after new complaints surfaced in February about researchers improperly recruiting minors and support staff members conducting psychiatric trials.

The U denied several of the claims, but it did suspend a number of research studies and it adopted a wide-ranging set of new research ethics practices in the department and across the university.

"The hiring of Dr. Vinogradov is important for the Medical School and also on a broader scale as we move ahead with University-wide reforms to our human research protections," Brooks Jackson, dean of the Medical School, said in a statement. "The Department of Psychiatry has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for research practices that have failed to live up to the best industry standards."

In an interview, Jackson said Vinogradov is "very well aware of issues in the department" and added: "I think she's in agreement with the recommendations and the progress being made."

In a statement released by the U, Vinogradov said she plans to create an advisory group that will include people who have experienced mental illness, their families, advocates and community providers.

Vinogradov's research has focused on early intervention in young people who experience early-stage symptoms of mental illness, as well as treatment using cognitive training without the use of medications.

She received her M.D. from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit and did her psychiatry residency training at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

Youssef Rddad is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.