Scott J Russo, PhD

Endowed Chair, Mount Sinai Professor in Affective Neuroscience

Dr. Russo is Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Center for Affective Neuroscience and the Brain Body Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He obtained his Ph.D. in Psychology from the City University of New York in 2003. He then completed his postdoctoral work in Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center before joining the faculty at the Icahn School of Medicine in 2008. Dr. Russo is known for his contributions to understanding the neural and immunological basis of neuropsychiatric disorders.  His translational studies have identified novel disease mechanisms in depressed humans that play causal roles in the expression of depression-like behaviors in rodent models.  He has also identified novel circuitry in the brain that control aberrant social behaviors leading to new perspectives about social dysfunction in neuropsychiatric illness.  His work has been highly cited in the field and featured in the popular press. Thomson-Reuters listed him as a “highly cited researcher”.  He has received numerous honors and awards in recognition of his work, including being named a Kavli National Academy of Science Frontiers Fellow in 2009, received the Johnson and Johnson/IMHRO Rising Star Translational Research Award in 2011 and elected fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2016.

For more information about Dr. Russo, please visit the Russo Laboratory.