ADAM GAZZALEY, MD, Ph.D.
Professor in Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at UCSF
Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape
Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed his Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. He is now Professor in Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center engaged in technology creation and scientific research.
He designs and develops novel brain assessment and optimization tools to impact education, wellness, and medical practices. This novel approach involves the development of custom-designed, closed-loop video games integrated with the latest advancements in software (brain-computer interfaces, GPU computing, cloud-based analytics) and hardware (virtual/augmented reality, motion capture, mobile physiological recording devices, transcranial electrical brain stimulation). These technologies are then advanced to rigorous research studies that evaluate their impact on multiple aspects of brain function and physiology. This utilizes a powerful combination of neurophysiological tools, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
Dr. Gazzaley is also co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, a company developing therapeutic video games, and co-founder and Chief Scientist of JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technology to improve human performance. Additionally, he has been a scientific advisor for over a dozen companies including Apple, GE, Nielsen, Deloitte, Magic Leap, and the VOID, as well as the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. Dr. Gazzaley has filed multiple patents for his inventions and authored over 130 scientific articles. His research and perspectives have been consistently profiled in high-impact media, such as The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Discover, Wired, PBS, NPR, CNN, and NBC Nightly News. He wrote and hosted the nationally-televised PBS special “The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley,” and co-authored the 2016 MIT Press book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World,” winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in the category of Biomedicine and Neuroscience. Dr. Gazzaley has received many awards and honors, including the 2015 Society for Neuroscience – Science Educator Award.
For over a decade, Dr. Gazzaley has delivered over 600 invited presentations around the world. His speaker keynotes presented in five continents and over two dozen countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Cuba, Brazil, Holland, Israel, Singapore, India, Australia…) have captured the imagination of diverse audiences: academics, entrepreneurs, investors, educators, lawyers, bankers, doctors, judges, children, healthcare professionals, technologists, engineers and congressmen. The venues have been just as wide-ranging: universities, hospitals, retirement communities, prisons, music festivals, elementary schools, museums, Apple stores, White House, Congress, conferences (SXSW, TED, DreamForce, CES, Exponential Medicine, Fortune Brainstorm Health, Wired Health, Milken Institute…) and companies (Apple, Google, Amazon, Sony, Microsoft, GE, Deloitte, RedBull, Samsung, NVIDIA, Salesforce…). His extensive contribution to the public education of science was awarded the 2015 Society for Neuroscience - Science Educator Award.
BOOKS: The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World