Robert Sapolsky

Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D is John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University . Sapolsky, a neuroendocrinologist, has focused his research on issues of stress and neuron degeneration, as well as on the possibilities of gene therapy strategies for help in protecting susceptible neurons from disease. In his well-known book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases and Coping (Freeman 1994, second edition 1998), for example, Sapolsky examines how prolonged stress can cause or contribute to damaging physical and mental afflictions. His lab was among the first to document that stress can damage the neurons of the hippocampus. He is currently working on gene transfer techniques to strengthen neurons against the disabling effects of glucocorticoids. Sapolsky has received numerous honors and awards for his work, including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Klingenstein Fellowship in Neuroscience. He received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and the Young Investigator of the Year Awards from the Society for Neuroscience, the Biological Psychiatry Society, and the International Society for Psychoneuro-Endocrinology. Author of numerous science articles, he is on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychoneuroendocrinology, and Stress and is a contributing editor for The Sciences.

Selected Bibliography

Sapolsky, Robert M. A Primate's Memoir. Touchstone Books: 2002.

Sapolsky, Robert. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Disease and Coping. W H Freeman and Co.: 1998.

Sapolsky, Robert. The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament. Scribner, 1997.

Sapolsky, Robert. Stress, the Aging Brain, and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death. MIT Press: 1992.