Dr. Gordon, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, studies the effects of genes that predispose to psychiatric illness through brain function and behavior in animal models. A major effort in his laboratory involves recording neural activity from mice carrying induced mutations in genes or chromosomal regions that predispose to schizophrenia. Another major effort is aimed at identifying the effects of a deletion in the serotonin 1A-receptor (5-HT1AR) that leads to a phenotype of increased anxiety-related behavior. Dr. Gordon received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, San Francisco, prior to completing a residency in psychiatry and a Research Fellowship with Dr. Rene Hen at Columbia.

Currently Dr. Gordon is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders. He oversees an extensive research portfolio of basic and clinical research that seeks to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.

Read more about Dr. Gordon from the March 2017 issue of Brain & Behavior Magazine.

In 2018, Dr. Gordon presented the Child Mind Institute Change Maker Award for Outstanding Organization to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Read more about that.