Dr. Elizabeth Gould is a distinguished neuroscientist and the Dorman T. Warren Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, where she has established herself as a leading authority in brain plasticity research. She received her Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1988 and completed her postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University under Bruce McEwen. Gould joined the Princeton faculty in 1997 after serving as an Assistant Professor at Rockefeller University from 1993 to 1996, bringing her pioneering research on neural regeneration to one of the world's premier neuroscience institutions. She was promoted to full Professor at Princeton in 2000 and has held several significant leadership positions including Chair of the Psychology Department from 2014 to 2017 and IACUC chair at Princeton University.
Dr. Gould is renowned for her groundbreaking research demonstrating adult neurogenesis in the mammalian hippocampus, a discovery that fundamentally challenged the long-held belief that the adult brain could not generate new neurons. Her laboratory's systematic investigations documented neurogenesis in primates, providing crucial evidence that the adult brain maintains regenerative capacity through the production of new neurons in specific regions. Her work has focused on how experience, including stress, physical activity, and parenting, regulates the birth and survival of new neurons in the hippocampus, olfactory bulb, and neocortex across multiple species including rodents and primates. These discoveries have profound implications for understanding normal brain function and developing therapeutic approaches for neurological disorders, transforming how neuroscientists conceptualize brain plasticity and repair mechanisms.
As a Scientific Council Member of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation since 2012, Dr. Gould has significantly influenced the direction of mental health research funding and scientific priorities in the field. She has received numerous prestigious awards including the National Academy of Sciences Troland Award, the NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award, and the Royal Society of the Arts Benjamin Franklin Award in recognition of her transformative contributions to neuroscience. Her current research explores the role of perineuronal nets in hippocampal plasticity and their relationship to autism spectrum disorder, as well as investigating how early life adversity impacts brain structure and function through changes in neurosteroids and cellular networks. Dr. Gould continues to pioneer new understandings of brain plasticity mechanisms that may ultimately inform innovative therapeutic approaches for neurological and psychiatric conditions worldwide.
