(University of Wisconsin, Waisman Center)
Specialization: Affective neuroscience, autism
Accolades: Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Award, NIMH MERIT award, National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD) Established Investigator Award, NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award, American Psychological Society William James Fellow Award, Hilldale Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Psychology and has been at Wisconsin since 1984. Dr. Davidson is internationally renowned for his research on the neural substrates of emotion and emotional disorders. He has published more than 150 articles, many chapters and reviews and edited 12 books. He is Associate Editor and serves on the Editorial Boards of numerous major journals. He is currently the Founding Co-Editor of the new American Psychological Association journal EMOTION. Dr. Davidson is Past-President of the Society for Research in Psychopathology and of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. He was the 1997 Distinguished Scientific Lecturer for the American Psychological Association. He served as a Core Member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network in Mind-Body Interaction, is currently a Core Member of the MacArthur Foundation Mind-Brain-Body and Health Initiative and a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors, NIMH. In 2001-02 he served on the National Academy of Science Panel to evaluate the validity of the polygraph. He was the year 2000 recipient of the most prestigious award given by the American Psychological Association for lifetime achievement—the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. In 2003 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2004 he was inducted into the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.