Adam Gazzaley

Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center at UCSF engaged in technology creation and scientific research.

At Neuroscape, he leads the design and development of novel brain assessment and cognitive optimization technologies to advance education, wellness, and medicine practices. Neuroscape’s novel approach involves the development of custom-designed, closed-loop video games integrated with the latest advancements in software and hardware (virtual/augmented reality, motion capture, mobile physiological recording devices, transcranial electrical brain stimulation). These technologies are then advanced to rigorous, placebo-controlled research studies that evaluate their impact on cognition, as well as the neural mechanisms of these effects using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Dr. Gazzaley is co-founder of Akili, a company developing therapeutic video games [On Fast Company’s 2022 list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies] and JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technology to improve human performance. He has been a scientific advisor for dozens of companies including Apple, GE, Nielsen, Deloitte, Magic Leap, and the VOID. He was a Science Board member of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, and is currently a Board of Trustee, Science Council Member and Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Gazzaley has filed multiple patents, notably his invention of the first video game cleared by the FDA as a medical treatment. He has authored over 190 scientific articles and delivered over 780 invited presentations around the world. 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 SfN Science Educator Award, the 2020 Global Gaming Citizen Honor and was named in Newsweek's 2021 Inaugural list of America’s Greatest Disruptors.