 In 1971, he was appointed an associate professor at Harvard.During his time at Harvard he began research on what would become a lifelong fascination with the mental health of immigrants, starting with the health effects of urbanization in Senegal and the mental health of American Indians on reservations.Beginning in 1975, Beiser was Professor and Head of Social and Cultural Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia's Department of Psychiatry, a position he held for 16 years.