Adam Gazzaley was born in New York City in December 1968. By the age of 7 he knew that he wanted to be a scientist; inspired by watching Cosmos, voracious consumption of science fiction and frequent trips to the Museum of Natural History. At 13 he began his daily 4hr round trip treks on the NYC subway between his home in Queens and the Bronx High School of Science. It was at 16 that he had his first exposure to scientific research, volunteering in a biophysical chemistry laboratory at Columbia Medical School. He went on to attain a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry at Binghamton University. There he engaged in research on cryopreservation, and spent summers focused on spinal cord regeneration at NYU Medical School.

From 1990 to 1998, Adam lived in Manhattan where he obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. His doctoral research focused on neurotransmitter receptor plasticity in the brain in response to aging and injury. This research earned him the prestigious 1997 Cortical Scholar Award. It was also in 1997 that he discovered nature photography, leading to his first company – Wanderings – and his first website – comewander.com. In 1998, he moved to Philadelphia for Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Following Medical Board certification in 2002, he packed up a Jeep and drove across the country to San Francisco. There he conducted postdoctoral research training in cognitive neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley, and concurrent clinical training in cognitive neurology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

In 2005, Adam joined the faculty at UCSF as an Assistant Professor in Neurology and Physiology and launched his own cognitive neuroscience laboratory – Gazzaley Lab – as well as a functional brain imaging center. Gazzaley Lab focused on understanding the neural mechanisms of attention and working memory, as well as their changes in the aging brain. In 2017, after demonstrating success with a custom-designed, closed-loop video game (Neuroracer) he designed to improve cognitive abilities in older adults (cover of Nature Sept 2013), he turned his lab into Neuroscape – a translational neuroscience center engaged in technology incubation and scientific research with the mission to design, develop and validate brain assessment and optimization tools. Adam is currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor in Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at UCSF and the Executive Director of Neuroscape.

Sharing his research and perspectives has been a major priority for Adam throughout his career. He has filed multiple patents for his inventions, authored over 140 scientific articles, and delivered over 700 invited presentations around the world. His has been consistently profiled in high-impact media, such as The New York Times, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Discover, Wired, PBS, NPR, CNN and Today Show. He wrote and hosted the nationally-televised PBS special “The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley”, and co-authored the 2016 MIT Press book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World”, winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in the category of Biomedicine and Neuroscience. Adam has received many awards and honors, including the 2015 Society for Neuroscience – Science Educator Award for his contributions to the public education of science.

Over the last decade, Adam has expanded his interactions with industry – as an entrepreneur, investor and advisor – in an effort to translate his research and inventions into real world impact. He is the Co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, a company developing therapeutic video games, Co-founder and Chief Scientist of JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technology to improve human performance, and Co-founder and Chief Science Advisor at Sensync, a technology company creating immersive, multi-sensory experiences. He has been a scientific advisor for over a dozen companies including Apple, GE, Nielsen, Deloitte, Magic Leap, the VOID. He was a Science Board member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, and is currently a Board of Trustee and Science Council member of the California Academy of Sciences.

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