David
G. Amaral, Ph.D. is Professor in
the Department of Psychiatry, Center for Neuroscience and the
California Regional Primate Research Center at the University of
California, Davis. He is also Research Director for the recently
established M.I.N.D.
(Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute.
Dr. Amaral's research program involves multidisciplinary approaches to
understanding neural systems involved in memory and in social behavior
and emotion. Studies are carried out both in animal models and in human
subjects and employ neuroantomical, neuroimaging, behavioral, and
electrophysiological techniques.
Judy
Cameron, Ph.D. holds joint
appointments as Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and
Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and
Associate Scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center and
Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at Oregon Health
Sciences University. Dr. Cameron is an accomplished developmental
neuroendocrinologist, neuroscientist, and primatologist.
Allison
Doupe, M.D., Ph.D. is an
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Physiology in the Keck Center for
Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California, San
Francisco. A psychiatrist and a neurobiologist, Dr. Doupe studies song
learning in songbirds, a model system for experience-dependent changes
in the brain and behavior, with particular relevance to speech
learning; she and her laboratory are also interested in how hormones
shape brain and behavior in this system and in general, and in the
neural basis of the innate predispositions for learning.
Nathan
A. Fox, Ph.D. is Professor of
Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Fox
is a Developmental Psychologist with research interests in the
development of emotion and the role of infant temperament in the
development of social competence. His work includes examining the
interface of central and peripheral nervous system development and
temperament utilizing measures of brain electrophysiology (EEG and
ERPs) as well as measures of autonomic nervous system reactivity. Dr.
Fox was Associate Editor of Developmental Psychology and currently
serves as Editor of Infant Behavior and Development. http://www.education.umd.edu/EDHD/faculty/Fox/
Eric
Knudsen, Ph.D., is a Professor
of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr Knudsen
is an expert on the effects of experience on the structure and function
of the central auditory system. His research focuses on cellular
mechanisms that underlie adaptive behavioral changes in response to
experience with changing environmental conditions during development
and in adult animals.
Pat
Levitt, Ph.D. is Director of the
John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development and Professor
of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. His research interests
include the genetic and environmental influences during pre- and
postnatal development that regulate brain wiring and function,
including the effects of specific gene mutations or cocaine exposure on
the immature nervous system. Dr. Levitt is a senior editor for the
Journal of Neuroscience and Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors
for the National Institute of Mental Health. Pat.Levitt@vanderbilt.edu
Susan
McConnell, Ph.D. is a Professor
of Biology at Stanford University. Dr. McConnell is a leader in the
field of developmental neurobiology, with particular expertise in the
area of fetal brain development, including how the brain produces
appropriate numbers and types of neurons and delivers them into the
right locations during development.
Charles
A. Nelson, Ph.D., the Richard
David Scott Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and
Director of Research at the Developmental Medicine Center at Boston
Children's Hospital, chairs the research network. His broad research
interests are concerned with the role of experience on brain and brain
development. To this end he conducts research on children who have
experienced early biological adversity (e.g., prematurity) or
psychosocial adversity (e.g., those living in institutions in Romania).
He chaired the MacArthur Foundation research network on Early
Experience and Brain Development, and currently chairs the advisory
board of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Program on
Experienced-Based Brain and Biological Development. He was a liaison to
the Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development
for the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the
National Academy of Sciences. He served as past Associate Editor of the
journal Child Development, and is currently Associate Editor of the
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. He earned his BA in Psychology from
McGill University, a masters degree in Psychology from the University
of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in child and developmental psychology from
the University of Kansas.
http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site2205/mainpageS2205P0.html
Jack
P. Shonkoff, M.D. is the Dean of
the Heller Graduate School and the Samuel F. and Rose B. Gingold
Professor of Human Development at Brandeis University. A distinguished
academic pediatrician and leader in the field of developmental
disabilities and early childhood intervention, Dr. Shonkoff currently
serves as Chair of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families at the
National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. He is also a
core group member of the Foundation's Network on Successful Pathways
Through Middle Childhood.
Marian
Sigman, Ph.D. is Professor of
Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of California - Los
Angeles. Dr. Sigman is a developmental and child clinical psychologist
and a leading expert on autism and the effects of perinatal
complications (e.g., prematurity) on biobehavioral development. Dr.
Sigman is also the co-chair of the 1999 program committee of the
Society for Research in Child Development.
Charles
H. Zeanah, M.D. is Professor of
Psychiatry and Pediatrics and Executive Director of the Institute of
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health at the Tulane University
School of Medicine in New Orleans. Dr. Zeanah studies the effects of
psychological trauma on infants and young children, especially those
who are exposed to family violence. Dr. Zeanah is the Chair of the
Research Committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry. http://www.som.tulane.edu/departments/psych_neuro/zeanah.htm
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