Biosketch
I teach biology, psychology, and cognitive science at the University of California, Berkeley, where I have been on the faculty in molecular and cell biology for more than 30 years. For more than a decade I worked in the clinical treatment of addiction and of post-traumatic-stress disorder at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco. And since 2003, I have been teaching neuroscience and conversing about science with Tibetan Buddhist monastics in India, Bhutan, and Nepal. I have a doctorate in molecular biology and biophysics from Caltech, and another in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. My areas of expertise include human neurobiology and neurochemistry, the effects of drugs on the brain and the mind, the clinical treatment of addiction, and the scientific study of mind and consciousness.
University of California, Berkeley, Affiliations:
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
Program in Cognitive Science
Department of Psychology
UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics
Berkeley Food Institute
UCB Academic Senate: Student Affairs Committee, Undergraduate Council,
and Divisional Council (2010 to 2016)
Bowles Hall Residential College (Board of Directors, since 2014)
Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health (since 2012)