Dr. Jodi Gilman is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and the Director of Neuroscience at the Center for Addiction Medicine. She received her BS from Tufts University in 2004, and her PhD in Neuroscience from Brown University in 2008, where she participated in the Graduate Partnership Program with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). At NIAAA, Dr. Gilman received training in neuroimaging, experimental psychology, and in drug and alcohol addiction.
Dr. Gilman has authored a series of scientific publications on the effects of alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse on the structure and function of the brain. She has also co-authored a book chapter on the pharmacological effects of alcohol. Her work has been featured in media outlets throughout the world, including Reuters, NPR’s Science Friday, and the BBC.
Dr. Gilman’s research focuses on the acute and long-term effects of addiction on the brain, specifically on neural circuitry underlying emotion and decision-making throughout the initiation, continuance, and cessation of drug and alcohol use. Currently, she is using brain-imaging paradigms to understand decision-making throughout different stages of drug use in young adult users. Her goal is to examine risk factors for the development of addiction, with the hope that this information will lead to the development of specific interventions to mitigate this risk.
Dr. Gilman is a recent awardee of a NIDA K01 Career Development Award to investigate neural mechanisms of peer influence among young adults using cannabis. She was also awarded the Harvard Medical School Norman E. Zinberg Fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry Research, as well as a NIDA Loan Repayment Award entitled Neuroimaging Techniques to Study and Treat Addiction. She has received numerous additional awards, including the Fellows Award for Research Excellence from the National Institutes of Health.