Roger Brown, Ph.D.

Dr. Roger Brown received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy in 1965 from the University of Kansas. While in pharmacy school he received an Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the NSF and that experience made him consider research in neuropsychopharmacology as a career. In 1967, he began a graduate program in pharmacology at the University of Chicago under the mentorship of Dr. Lewis Seiden. While his Ph.D. work concentrated on the experimental analysis of behavior, Dr. Brown wanted to become involved with the neural basis of behavior. He received a Fellowship from the Swedish Medical Research Council 1972 and spent nearly 2 years in Gothenburg, Sweden, with Professor Arvid Carlsson learning monoamine neurochemistry. In 1974, armed with a state-of-the-art monoamine assay technology, Dr. Brown went to the Neuropsychology Laboratory within NIMH´s intramural research program. He collaborated with Dr. Patricia Goldman-Rakic to explore a neurochemical basis for recovery of function following lesions of the prefrontal cortex in rhesus monkeys. In 1979, Dr. Brown accepted an offer by Dr. Marvin Snyder, director of the Division of Research, NIDA, to develop a neuroscience program. In 1981, the Neuroscience Research Branch was formed and Dr. Brown became its branch chief. He became involved with the training program and attracted many young investigators to the drug abuse field. The program expanded resulting in a neuroscience Institute initiative and creation of the Behavioral Neurobiology Research Branch. Dr. Brown was recently appointed the coordinator for neuroscience and referral for the Division of Neuroscience and Behavior.