Scientific Advisory Board

Jay D. Amsterdam, MD is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and former Director of the Depression Research Unit at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Dr. Amsterdam is a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in American Civilization. He received his MD degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and postgraduate training in psychiatry at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (Philadelphia, PA) and The Maudsley Hospital, Institute of Psychiatry (University of London. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in affective disorders and a NIMH-funded post-doctoral fellowship in neuropsychopharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1980, Associate Professor in 1986, and full Professor in 1992.

Dr. Amsterdam’s research interests have included studies in psychopharmacology, molecular brain imaging, psychoneuroendocrinology, psychoimmunovirology, and integrative botanical psychopharmacology of affective disorders. More recently, he has applied his clinical and research experience to the study of ethical issues in modern psychiatry research.

He has authored or co-authored more than 270 original articles, reviews and chapters, and has edited five textbooks on the pharmacotherapy of mood disorders.

Glen Baker is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta. He is a former a Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, a founding member of the Neurochemical Research Unit in that department and a past president of the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CCNP). He also held the following positions at the University of Alberta: Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, Distinguished University Professor and Associate Vice-President Research. Dr. Baker is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences He was series co-editor for the book series Neuromethods for 20 years and has served on numerous grant review panels, organizing committees for national and international conferences and editorial boards of several journals. He has published over 400 papers and supervised or co-supervised 18 MSc students and 26 PhD students in full graduate programs, and 23 postdoctoral fellows and 30 psychiatry residents in research projects.

His numerous awards include the College Medal and the Innovation in Neuropsychopharmacology Research Award of the CCNP, a University of Alberta Research Award for Excellence in Mentoring, a REACH Team Award from Capital Health and the following awards from the University of Saskatchewan (UofS): Alumni Award of Achievement (2006), 100 Alumni of Influence Award for the UofS Centenary (2007) and a College of Pharmacy and Nutrition Centennial Alumni of Influence Award (2014). In 2015 he received the Medal of Honor of the Alberta Medical Association.

Dr. Ken Gillman is a Clinical Neuro-pharmacologist and a retired clinical psychiatrist.  Ken has published many scientific review papers about neuro-pharmacology in prestigious journals.  Details are in PubMed, the ‘Publications’ menu and his “Google Scholar’ profile.

He is an internationally acknowledged authority on serotonin toxicity and also an expert in the area of MAOIs.   He has expertise in drug adverse reactions and interactions involving most drugs that affect the central nervous system, but especially: MAOIs, TCAs, SSRIs, and SNRIs.

Tom lnsel, M.D., a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, has been a national leader in mental health research, policy, and technology. From 2002-2015, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). More recently (2015 – 2017), he led the Mental Health Team at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) in South San Francisco, CA. In 2020, he co-founded Humanest Care, a therapeutic online community for recovery. Since May of 2019, Dr. Insel has been a special advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Chair of the Board of the Steinberg Institute in Sacramento, California. He is the author of the forthcoming book Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health, to be published by Penguin Random House. He is currently developing MindSite, a non-profit digital publication focused on mental health issues. Dr. Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards including honorary degrees in the U.S. and Europe.

Dr. Krystal is the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF. He is also Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. He is Director of the Clinical and Translational Sleep Research Laboratory in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at UCSF and the UCSF Dolby Family Centers for Mood Disorders. The primary focus of his research is the development of biomarkers for mood disorders and sleep disorders and their application in developing novel personalized treatments for these conditions. He has served as principal investigator for more than 60 trials of treatments for mood and sleep disorders consisting of a mix of industry and NIH-funded and single and multi-site trials. He is best known for leading the NIMH program “New Experimental Medicine Studies: Fast-Fail Trials in Mood and Anxiety Spectrum Disorders (FAST-MAS)”. This included leading a multi-site team in carrying out a landmark biomarker-focused Phase IIa study applying the “Fast-Fail” approach to treatment development in assessing the promise of the target, kappa opioid antagonism, as a treatment for anhedonia in patients with mood and anxiety spectrum disorders.

Alan F. Schatzberg received his M.D. from New York University in 1968.  He did his psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center/Harvard Medical School (HMS).

After serving in the United States Air Force, he joined the staff at McLean Hospital and the faculty of HMS where he held a number of positions including Interim Psychiatrist in Chief and Director of the Depression Research Facility.  He later became Clinical Director of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Professor of Psychiatry at HMS.  In 1991, he moved to Stanford University to become the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.  He served as Chair until 2010 and directs the Stanford Mood Disorders Center.

He has been an active investigator in the biology and psychopharmacology of depressive disorders.  He has authored over 700 publications and abstracts, including Schatzberg’s Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology, whose ninth edition appeared in 2019 and is co-authored by Dr. Charles DeBattista.  He also co-edited the Textbook of Psychopharmacology whose fifth edition appeared in 2017 and was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.  He is a Past President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and the Society of Biological Psychiatry (SoBP).  His numerous awards include the: Mood Disorders Research Award from the American College of Psychiatrists, APA Award for Research, Anna Monika Award, Kraepelin Gold Medal from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Gold Medal from the SoBP, etc.   He has been elected into the National Academy of Medicine and has received three honorary doctorates.

Dr. Stahl has held faculty positions at Stanford University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the Institute of Psychiatry London, the Institute of Neurology London, and, currently, as clinical professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California Riverside, adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego and as Honorary Fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Stahl serves as editor-in-chief of CNS Spectrums and is Senior Academic Advisor and Director of Psychopharmacology for the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) where he has a leadership role in addressing violence and decriminalization of the seriously mentally ill in the five-hospital 6500 patient DSH.

Author of over 560 articles and chapters with an H index of 62, and more than 2000 scientific presentations and abstracts, Dr. Stahl is an internationally renowned clinician, researcher and teacher in psychiatry with subspecialty expertise in psychopharmacology.  Dr. Stahl has written 53 textbooks and edited 15 others, including the best-selling and award winning textbook, Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology, now in its fifth edition and the best-selling and award-winning clinical manual, Essential Psychopharmacology Prescriber’s Guide, now in its seventh edition.  Dr. Stahl has also published a novel, Shell Shock, a thriller that recounts the history of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. Dr. Williams has a broad background in clinical neuroscience and is triple board-certified in general neurology, general psychiatry, as well as behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. In addition, he has specific training and clinical expertise in the development of brain stimulation methodologies under Mark George, MD. Themes of his work include (a) examining the use of spaced learning theory in the application of neurostimulation techniques, (b) development and mechanistic understanding of rapid-acting antidepressants, and (c) identifying objective biomarkers that predict neuromodulation responses in treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric conditions. He has published papers in high impact peer-reviewed journals including Brain, American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Results from his studies have gained widespread attention in journals such as Science and New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch as well as in the popular press and have been featured in various news sources including Time, Smithsonian, and Newsweek. Dr. Williams received two NARSAD Young Investigator Awards in 2016 and 2018 along with the 2019 Gerald R. Klerman Award. Dr. Williams received the National Institute of Mental Health Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists in 2020.