Ahmad R Hariri

Ahmad Hariri is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Investigator in the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University. He gained his BS and MS degrees in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Maryland, and was awarded a PhD in Neuroscience by UCLA in 2000. After three years of postdoctoral work at the American National Institute of Mental Health, he joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh, where he remained until 2009 and served as Director of the Developmental Imaging Genetics Program.

Using neuroimaging, pharmacology, and molecular genetics, his research aims to identify specific biological pathways involved in shaping individual differences in personality, and the related risk for development of psychopathology, particularly mood and anxiety disorders. The long-term focus of his research is the identification of neurobiological pathways underlying variability in complex behaviors and risk for psychopathology, which can facilitate the development of more effective, individually-tailored treatment for these conditions, and ultimately enable their prevention.

His research efforts have earned him a number of prizes, including the 2002 NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence, and the 2006-2008 Bowman Family Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.  More recently, he won the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology (2009).