About the Director
Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D.
Director of NIMH
Make a plan but don't be afraid to change it! I never thought about being an institute director. I had to change my plan dramatically, and I am glad I did.
Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders. He oversees an extensive research portfolio of basic and clinical research that seeks to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.
Dr. Gordon pursued a combined M.D.-Ph.D. degree at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Medical school coursework in psychiatry and neuroscience convinced
him that the greatest need, and greatest promise, for biomedical science was in these areas.
During his Ph.D. thesis with Dr. Michael Stryker, Dr. Gordon pioneered the methods necessary to study brain plasticity in the mouse visual system. Upon completion of the dual degree program at UCSF, Dr. Gordon went to Columbia University for his psychiatry residency and research fellowship because of the breadth and depth of the research opportunities there. Working with Dr. Rene Hen, Dr. Gordon and colleagues studied the role of the hippocampus, a brain structure known to be important for memory and emotional processes associated with anxiety and depression. He joined the Columbia faculty in 2004 as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Gordon’s research focuses on the analysis of neural activity in mice carrying mutations of relevance to psychiatric disease. His lab studied genetic models of these diseases from an integrative neuroscience perspective, focused on understanding how a given disease mutation leads to a behavioral phenotype across multiple levels of analysis. To this end, he employs a range of systems neuroscience techniques, including in vivo imaging, anesthetized and awake behavioral recordings, and optogenetics, which is the use of light to control neural activity. His research has direct relevance to schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and depression.
In addition to his research, Dr. Gordon was an associate director of the Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute Adult Psychiatry Residency Program, where he directed the neuroscience curriculum and administered research training programs for residents. Dr. Gordon also maintained a general psychiatric practice, caring for patients who suffer from the illnesses he studied in his lab at Columbia.
Dr. Gordon’s work has been recognized by several prestigious awards, including the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation – NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the Rising Star Award from the International Mental Health Research Organization, the A.E. Bennett Research Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and the Daniel H. Efron Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Read Dr. Gordon’s Full Biography
Director’s Messages
Going Global: Advancing Mental Health Research Around the World • 75th Anniversary
NIMH’s Infrastructure Investments: Paving the Road to Discovery • 75th Anniversary
From Lab to Clinic: The Power of Translational Research for Mental Health • 75th Anniversary
Dr. Gordon in the News
Science in the Service of Furthering Mental Health - Dr. Joshua Gordon, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health
Raise the Line, September 21, 2023
Can MDMA Therapy Ease the World’s Traumas? Critics Aren’t Sure.
Undark, August 23, 2023
Minneapolis Mayor Loosens Enforcement of Psychedelics
The New York Times, July 21, 2023
Congressional Testimonies
March 23, 2022
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: Strengthening Federal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Programs - Opportunities, Challenges, and Emerging Issues
June 22, 2017
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies: Review of the FY2018 Budget Request for the National Institutes of Health.