Established in 2004, the Joseph D. Matarazzo lecture series honors Department Founder and Emeritus Professor, Joseph D. Matarazzo, Ph.D.

Past Lectures

Monday, May 15, 2023
Anne Churchland, PhD
Professor, Department of Neurobiology, University of California Los Angeles
"Decisions, movements and the brain"

Monday, September 12th, 2022
Suzanne Haber, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Rochester Medical Center
"Circuits linking reward, cognition, and decision-making"

Tuesday, June 4th, 2019
Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D.
Director of the National Institute of Mental Health
"Opportunities and Challenges in Psychiatric Neuroscience"

Monday, April 16, 2018
Rajita Sinha, Ph.D
Yale University
"Neuroscience of Drug & Stress Interactions: Impact on Health & Clinical Outcomes"

Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Frans B.M. de Waal, Ph.D.
C.H. Candler Professor of Psychology, Emory University
Director, Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center
Distinguished Professor, University of Utrecht
"Cognitive Continuity: A Kingdom Full of Special Mental Capacities"

Thursday, June 16, 2016
David G.Amaral, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor, University of California, Davis
Beneto Foundation Chair and Director of Research, MIND Institute
"More Luck than Brains. Surprises in the Career of a Behavioral Neuroscientist: Memory, Emotion and Autism"

Monday, May 11, 2015
Marina Wolf, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Neuroscience
Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
"Synaptic mechanisms maintaining persistent cocaine craving"

Monday, May 5, 2014
Fred H. Gage, Ph.D.
Adler Professor, Laboratory of Genetics
Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
"Mobile elements: Generation of behavioral and evolutionary diversity"

Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Russell D. Fernald, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor, Mimi & Peter Haas University Fellow in Undergraduate Education
Stanford University
"How does social behavior change the brain?"

Tuesday, May 21, 2012
Michael S. Fanselow, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychology, UCLA
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
UCLA Integrative Center for Learning & Memory (ICLM)
"Neural circuits that put fear into context"

May 20, 2011
Bob Hitzemann, Joe Robertson, and Dan Dorsa: Introduction

Joe Matarazzo:  1957-61: A New Basic Science and Clinical Department is Born
Ruth Matarazzo:  A New Clinical Service:  From East to West
Arthur Wiens:  My Timeline: Medical Psychology Internship and Residency Program Compendium
Chris Cunningham:  Introduction of a Ph.D. Program in Experimental-Physiological Psychology
Bob Hitzemann:  Behavioral Neuroscience, Present and Future

Special Guest Speaker:  R. Adron Harris: Alcohol and the Brain:  Molecules and Mice
Director, Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research
Professor of Neurobiology and Waggoner Chair in Cellular and Molecular Biology
University of Texas at Austin

Tamara Phillips:  Perspectives on Behavioral Genetics

Matt Lattal:  Behavioral Neuroscience Perspectives on Extinction and Memory Erasure
Suzanne Mitchell:  Understanding Impulsive Behavior: Contributions from Behavioral Neuroscience

Monday, May 3, 2010
Bruce McEwen, Ph.D.
Alfred E. Mirsky Professor
The Rockefeller University
"Protective and Damaging Effects of Mediators of Stress and Adaptation: Central Role of the Brain and the Social Environment"

May 4, 2009
Thomas J. Carew, PhD
Bren Professor Chair Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
University of California, Irvine
"How time flies: The molecular architecture of memory"

May 12, 2008
Eric Nestler, M.D., Ph.D.
Lou and Ellen McGinley Distinguished Chair in Psychiatric
Research Professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
"Molecular Mechanisms of Drug Addiction" 

June 7, 2007
Terry E. Robinson, Ph.D.
Elliot S. Valenstein Collegiate Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience
Editor-in-Chief, Behavioural Brain Research
Department of Psychology (Biopsychology Program) The University of Michigan
"Drugs, neuroplasticity, and addiction"  

June 16, 2006
Michela Gallagher, Ph.D.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
"The aging brain: One surprise after another" 

May 5, 2005
Barry Everitt, Ph.D., Sc.D.
Experimental Psychology, Downing College, Cambridge University
"Neural psychological mechanisms underlying compulsive drug seeking: Implications for addiction and its treatment" 

May 19, 2004
Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D.
UCLA School of Medicine
"Imaging as phenotype: Functional imaging of genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease"