Joseph Vincent Brady was a behavioral neuroscientist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

This article is about the U.S. Army medical research institute . Otherwise, see Walter Reed .The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense...

 in the United States. While at the Walter Reed Institute he performed the experiment "Ulcers in Executive Monkeys

Ulcers in Executive Monkeys

Ulcers in Executive Monkeys was a study into the effects of stress, published in 1958 in Scientific American by Joseph V. Brady.-Method of the experiment:...

" that suggested a link between stress and peptic ulcers. This research was significant in establishing the idea that stress was a physical illness, with important influence in the development of Psychology and Neuroscience.

After the launch of Sputnik he became responsible for training monkeys for the space program

Monkeys in space

Before humans went into space, several animals were launched into space, including numerous monkeys, so that scientists could investigate the biological effects of space travel. The United States launched flights containing primate cargo primarily between 1948-1961 with one flight in 1969 and one...

, in particular Ham

Ham the Chimp

Ham , also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was the first chimpanzee launched into outer space in the American space program...

. Ham was the first hominid in space and rode aboard a Redstone

Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle

The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, designed for NASA's Project Mercury, was the first American manned space booster. It was used for six sub-orbital Mercury flights from 1960–61; culminating with the launch of the first, and 11 weeks later, the second American in space.A member of the...

 launch vehicle. The training of Ham was performed in a similar way to his earlier studies on executive monkeys.

He founded the Programmed Environment Research Center as well as the Division of Behavioral Biology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He continued to work there for three decades and received the P.B. Dews Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Pharmacology in 2004. Based upon his seminal work in programmed environments, he has continued to explore the application of behavior principles to help with prolonged space flights.
In 2011, Dr. Brady was honored for his 50 years of leadership of the Institutes for Behavior Resources. He died in July of that year of pneumonia.