Dean’s DistinguisheD Lecture
Winter 2025
AGENDA OPENING REMARKS
Frank LaFerla, PhD
Dr. Lionel and Fay Ng Dean
LECTURE
Diego Pizzagalli, PhD
Q & A
RECEPTION
About the Lecture
Depression has become the leading cause of disability worldwide, and its prevalence has increased substantially, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Over the past decade, there has been substantial progress in our understanding of possible causes of depression. In particular, there have been breakthroughs in our ability to study the human brain that have allowed researchers and clinicians to identify individuals at increased risk for depression, develop new treatments, and identify biological markers that could be used to guide treatment. In this presentation, Dr. Pizzagalli will summarize main risk factors for depression as well as examples of how findings in neuroscience have been harnessed to develop novel treatment approaches for this prevalent disorder.
About the Speaker Diego Pizzagalli, PhD
Dr. Pizzagalli received his M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (1998) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and did post-doctoral work at University of Wisconsin, Madison. From 2002-2010 he was a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, where he served as the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences. In 2010, he was recruited to McLean Hospital to serve as the Founding Director of the Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research (CDASR), as well as the Director of the McLean Imaging Center (MIC). Until 12/2024, Dr. Pizzagalli was a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the Center Director for a Silvio O. Conte Center for Basic Translational Mental Health Research focused on the neurobiology of and novel treatment targets for depression and anxiety disorders. Since 2024, he is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford, UK. In 2025, he joined the University of California at Irvine as the Founding Director of the Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, and the Noel Drury MD Endowed Chair.
