Dr. Michael Fanselow is a distinguished leader in the field of behavioral neuroscience with a career spanning over three decades at the highest levels of academic research. He currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Brain Research Institute, and Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he has maintained a prominent research program since joining the faculty in 1987. Prior to his appointment at UCLA, Dr. Fanselow held academic positions at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute and Dartmouth College, building the foundation for his groundbreaking work in fear and anxiety research. He received his doctoral training at the University of Washington in Biobehavioral Psychology, where his dissertation work earned the prestigious Edwin B. Newman Award for Excellence in Research. His leadership extends beyond UCLA as he serves as co-founder and Director of Research at Neurovation Labs and recently assumed the position of Staglin Family Chair and Director of the Staglin Music Festival Center for Brain and Behavioral Health.
Dr. Fanselow's seminal contribution to neuroscience is the development of the freezing assay of conditional fear, which has become one of the most widely-used tools in preclinical research of learning, memory, fear, and anxiety across laboratories worldwide. His neurobiological investigations into fear and anxiety-related behaviors have fundamentally shaped contemporary understanding of how fear translates into specific behavioral responses, work that was recognized with the National Academy of Sciences' Troland Research Award in 1995. He has pioneered innovative animal models of post-traumatic stress disorder that capture several major components of this complex disorder, providing researchers with essential tools for developing novel therapeutic interventions. His laboratory's systematic approach to mapping the neural circuits involved in fear conditioning and extinction has generated foundational knowledge that continues to inform both basic research and clinical applications in anxiety disorders.
Beyond his own research program, Dr. Fanselow has exerted significant influence through leadership roles including serving as President of the American Psychological Association's Division of Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology and President of the Pavlovian Society. His work as a dedicated mentor is evidenced by his guidance of numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, including Dr. Perusini, whose work on PTSD models continues to advance the field. He contributes to scientific discourse through service on National Institute of Mental Health review panels and as an instructor for specialized training courses in mouse behavioral analysis at Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory. Currently directing the Staglin Music Festival Center for Brain and Behavioral Health, Dr. Fanselow continues to shape the future of neuroscience research with a mission focused on understanding mental disorders and developing pathways to restore healthy brain function and adaptive behavior.
