Schizophrenia expert to direct the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience
Cameron Carter, MD
Cameron S. Carter, an expert in brain imaging who is internationally known for his research into cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, has been named interim director for the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience.
Carter will lead the growth and development of the 19-year-old Center for Neuroscience starting July 1, 2009. He succeeds Dr. Edward G. “Ted” Jones, who has led the Center for the past 11 years.
”I am very pleased to welcome Dr. Carter to the role of interim director of the Center for Neuroscience,” said Ken Burtis, Dean of the College of Biological Sciences. “His leadership and expertise in both basic research and clinical medicine will help ensure that the outstanding science done at the Center has the maximum possible impact on human health.”
Carter is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the UC Davis School of Medicine and the director of the UC Davis Imaging Research Center.
“It is an honor to serve as Interim Director at the Center for Neuroscience at the University of California at Davis,” says Carter. “Under Dr Jones’ leadership this Center has become one of the most prominent and highly respected in the nation.”
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) currently support Carter’s research program. His laboratory focuses on neural mechanisms of attention and memory, and on the pathophysiological processes underlying clinical disorders that involve these cognitive systems.
“We have an outstanding faculty conducting world class fundamental research into how the nervous system develops and functions normally as well as how these processes may go awry and result in the brain disorders that affect so many individuals and families in our society," says Carter. “As we work though what is a difficult time for the University we also are optimistic that this transition for the Center will lead to some exciting new opportunities for growth that will ensure its continued excellence in the coming years.”
Carter has received numerous awards and honors, among them a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Distinguished Investigator Award, an NIHM Independent Scientist Career Award, and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research.
Carter ‘s research has been published in Science, Nature, and the American Journal of Psychiatry. He has authored nearly 200 articles, papers and chapters, and he serves as Deputy Editor of Biological Psychiatry, as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry, and on the editorial boards of three other journals. Carter was a charter member of the NPAS review section of the NIMH and has been an ad hoc reviewer for the VA Merit Program and National Science Foundation since 2000.
Carter received his bachelor’s degree in medical science from the University of Western Australia and his medical degree from the University of Western Australia School of Medicine. After a brief period of medical practice Dr Carter completed psychiatry residency training and joined the faculty at UC Davis in 1989. In 1993 he moved to the University of Pittsburgh where he conducted basic and clinical research, returning to lead the UC Davis Imaging Research Center as Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology in 2003. In addition to directing the Imaging Research Center he directs the EDAPT (Early Intervention and Preventive Clinic), where young people who are experiencing the early signs of serious mental illness receive comprehensive services in the Department of Psychiatry at the UC Davis Medical Center.
About The UC Davis Center for Neuroscience
Established in 1991, the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience seeks to understand the function of the human brain in health and in illness. Treating, curing and perhaps even preventing schizophrenia, depression, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, the after-effects of stroke, and other mental disorders all depend on developing an intimate understanding of the human brain. Teams of internationally recognized scientists work in areas ranging from cellular and molecular neurobiology, through systems and developmental neuroscience, to studies of human perception, attention, memory, language, and the nature of consciousness. The discoveries they make are the raw material that will be translated into advances in the clinic, through close collaboration between bench scientists and physicians.
About UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service: “Doing what matters” for California and the rest of the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science -- and advanced degrees from six professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.