NAAR is honored to have the following distinguished scientists serving on its Scientific Advisory Board. These researchers - all of whom volunteer their time and expertise to NAAR - meet annually to review the dozens of research and fellowship proposals submitted for funding consideration to NAAR over a 6-week period culminating in the annual all-day Scientific Advisory Board meeting. In addition, members of NAAR's Scientific Advisory Board provide guidance and recommendations to NAAR's Board of Trustees regarding the scientific direction of the organization and participate in NAAR-sponsored scientific workshops and conferences.

NAAR is the first nonprofit organization to assemble such an esteemed group of scientists to focus on autism research and accelerate the pace that research. NAAR has experts in all of the many scientific disciplines required to fully investigate the possible causes and treatments of autism spectrum disorders, including neuroimaging, neuroanatomy, virology, genetics, developmental pediatrics, child psychiatry, pediatric neurology, neuropharmacology and toxicology, developmental neurobiology, and biostatistics. We are grateful for our scientists, generous dedication of time and talent to the advancement of our mission.

Melissa Down Begg, Sc.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical Public Health, Division of Biostatistics, Columbia University, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health and Research Scientist, New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Major Fields of Research Interest: Biostatistics; Numerous NIH grants concerning neurological disorder studies such as prenatal determinants of schizohrenia and youth depression, anxiety, and suicide.

Dr. Begg has served as a referee for several journals such as the American Journal of Psychiatry, Statistics in Medicine, and American Journal of Public Health. She has authored or co-authored more than 25 publications in such journals as the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the American Journal of Epidemiology. Dr. Begg is frequently invited to speak on various topics in biostatistics at universities and professional meetings worldwide.

Verne S. Caviness, Jr., M.D., D. Phil.
Chief, Division of Pediatric Neurology
Joseph and Rose Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Major Fields of Interest: General Child Neurology, General Adult Neurology, Headache, Development of the cerebral cortex; MRI-based human brain morphometry.

Dr. Caviness has been extensively published in major scientific journals, primarily about brain development and neurosciences, and he has participated in many autism conferences to present the latest clinical information regarding neurology and autism. Dr. Caviness is an active member of the American Academy of Neurology, American Neurological Association, Child Neurology Society, Society Neuroscience, and the Society Cognitive Neuroscience.

Joseph T. Coyle, MD
Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience and Chair of the Consolidated Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.

Major Fields of Research Interest: Developmental Neurobiology; Signal transduction in the nervous system.

Numerous honors and awards including: Nancy and Daniel Weisman Award for Research on Mental Retardation, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, The Gold Medal Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Who's Who Among Outstanding Americans, and Who's Who in the World.

Dr. Coyle has served on Scientific Advisory Committees of the NIMH, Society for Neuroscience, National March of Dimes, Hereditary Disease Foundation, Alzheimer's Disease Foundation, International Rett's Syndrome Association, and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Research on Children and Adolescents with Mental, Behavioral and Developmental Disorders, among numerous others.

He serves on the Editorial Boards of 26 prestigious journals including: Harvard Review of Psychiatry (Editor in Chief), Advances in Pharmacology, Acta Paedopsychiatrica, International Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of Psychiatric Research, The Journal of Neuroscience, Developmental Brain Research, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Journal of Neuroscience Research, Metabolic Brain Disease, Neurochemical Pathology, Synapse, Neuropharmacology, Neurobiology of Disease, and Neurobehavioral Toxicology.

Dr. Coyle has authored or co-authored four books and has authored or co-authored 446 publications.

Tom Curran, Ph.D.
Chairman, Department of Developmental Neurobiology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Major fields of interest: Brain development, neurobiology, molecular biology, genetics.

A renowned expert in developmental neurobiology, Dr. Curran's work focuses on understanding the molecular events that control the formation of the mammalian brain. He and his research team used a combination of molecular and genetic approaches to identify two genes responsible for neuronal positioning defects in ataxic mutant mice. In addition to his interests in brain development, Dr. Curran and his team are also working on several aspects of molecular oncogenesis and continuing to pursue an analysis of the c-fos gene - the archetypal member of the class of genes known as cellular immediate-early genes.

Stephen R. Dager, M.D.
Co-Director, Center for Anxiety and Depression, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; and Joint Professor, Dept. of Radiology, University of Washington School of Medicine

Major fields of interest: Metabolism of the central nervous system; neuroimaging; brain physiology; neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Dager's primary focus in recent years has been the development and application of innovative functional brain imaging techniques to study brain physiological processes involved in neuropsychiatric disorders. Recent work has included the development of a technique for functional magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging which allows rapid axial imaging of brain chemical composition or metabolic changes - which was done in collaboration with individuals in the Department of Radiology and Dr. Stefan Posse at the Institute for Medicine in Julich, Germany. Investigating the neurobiology of autism, Dr. Dager and his colleagues are studying the time course of brain structural development using magnetic resonance imaging techniques in relationship to measurements of the underlying neurochemistry using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The goal of this research is to better understand brain developmental processes involved in autism that may be atypical.

Additionally, in conjunction with Dr. Wayne Strauss, he has developed techniques and hardware to quantitate and characterize the distribution of fluorinated psychotropic compounds in the human brain using 19 F MR spectroscopy.

Mony J. de Leon, Ed.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Neuroimaging Research Laboratory, New York University Medical Center

Major Research Interests: Developing neuroimaging diagnostic markers for Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders and to use neuroimaging techniques to identify mechanisms of age-related brain change

Dr. de Leon is on the Editorial Review Board of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging and has authored or co-authored over 115 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and over 200 abstracts on neuroimaging. He is also a Research Collaborator at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a Research Scientist at Nathan Kline Institute and Ad hoc reviewer to the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological, Communicative Disorders and Stroke, and National Institute of Aging.

Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom, MD
Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Dr. DiCicco-Bloom is an expert on neurogenesis and, in particular, neuropeptide regulation of brain development. He is the Principal Investigator on two NIH research grants on the Regulation of Neuronal Mitosis, and Neurogenesis and Survival and an ad hoc reviewer for numerous neuroscience journals. Dr. DiCicco-Bloom is the author of 25 reviewed journal articles and five chapters in treatises on neurogenesis.

Martha Bridge Denckla, MD
Director, Developmental Cognitive Neurology, The Kennedy Krieger Institute: Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Batza Family Endowment Chair

Dr. Denckla past positions include Director of the Learning Disabilities Clinic at the Boston Children's Hospital, and, for five years, Chief of the Section on Autism and Related Disorders at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Denckla has been awarded numerous awards and honors, is the author or co-author of 58 reviewed journal articles and 35 invited chapters in books, has served on the Editorial Boards of Brain and Language and Developmental Neuropsychology, and currently is the Principal Investigator of a NICHD-funded Center entitled "Neurodevelopmental Pathways to Learning Disabilities".

Salvatore J. Enna, Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas School of Medicine

Major Fields of Research Interest: Neuropharmacology, Neurochemistry and Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Dr. Enna serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Neuroscience Research, Neuropharmacology, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Brain Research, Brain Research Reviews, The Receptors and Molecular Brain Research, among others. His publications include chapters in 16 books and 197 reviewed journal articles.

James F. Gusella, Ph.D.
Bullard Professor of Neurogenetics, Harvard Medical School; Director, Molecular Neurogenetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital

Major Research Interests: Neurogenetics

Dr. Gusella, a molecular geneticist, is credited with identifying the gene for Huntington's Disease. He is the recipient of over 17 awards in medicine including the CINN-ESEKA Decade of the Brain Award and the J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine. Dr. Gusella serves on the Editorial Boards of Contemporary Neurology, Neurobiology of Disease, Neuropsychiatric Genetics, Section of American Journal of Medical Genetics, and Molecular Brain Research, among others.

Dr. Gusella has authored or co-authored 277 reviewed publications and 74 Reviews, Symposia and Chapters in books.

Susan L. Hyman, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Major Fields of Clinical and Research Interest: Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Behavioral, developmental and medical features of patients with developmental disabilities and self-injurious behaviors.

Dr. Hyman was a protégé of Dr. Coyle while both were at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her publications include 17 reviewed journal articles and numerous invited lectures.

Barry Jacobs, Ph.D.
Director of the Program in Neuroscience and Professor in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University.

Major Field of Research Interest: Neurochemistry and Neuropharmacology

Dr. Jacobs is the editor of three books and author of 47 book chapters and 142 peer-reviewed articles. He is an expert on serotonin and its function in behavior and brain function. He has served as a member of numerous federal panels on behavioral and neural sciences, as well as on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuroscience, Brain Research, Brain Research Bulletin and other publications.

Kathleen A. Mahon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

Major Fields of Research Interest: The role of homeobox genes in the determination and patterning of the anterior neural plate and its derivatives; generation of transgenic models to study development.

Prior to joining Baylor College of Medicine in 1996, Dr. Mahon was Head of the Unit on Developmental Gene Regulation, Laboratory of Mammalian Genes and Development, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH. Dr. Mahon is a frequent lecturer on developmental genetics and an ad hoc reviewer for Development, Developmental Biology, Developmental Dynamics, Mechanisms of Development, New Biologist, Genenomics, Journal of Cell Biology and other scientific journals. She is the author or co-author of 42 reviewed research articles.

Eric J. Nestler, MD, Ph.D.
Lou and Ellen McGinley Distinguished Professor and Chairman, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Major Fields of Research Interest: Molecular Neurobiology, Neurochemistry, Neuropharmacology

Dr. Nestler's Editorial Board memberships include the Journal of Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, Journal of Neurochemistry, Yale Psychiatry (Editor in Chief), Neuropsychopharmacology and The Neuroscientist. Dr. Nestler serves on numerous advisory and peer review committees and is the author or co-author of five books, 155 peer-reviewed articles, and 88 chapters and review articles.

Richard S. Nowakowski, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director, Image Enhancement and Analysis Facility, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Major Fields of Research Interest: Fetal Neurodevelopment, with special emphasis on the development of the cerebral cortex and the regulation of neuron number, cell proliferation and neuronal migration. Also, mathematical models and implementation of computer simulations of developmental events.

For the past two years, Dr. Nowakowski has served as the Chair of the Neurology B1 Study Section of the Division of Research Grants at the National Institutes of Health., among other committee service. He has been the Principal Investigator for numerous NIH and National Science Foundation grants including: "The Effects of Genes Producing Immune System Dysfunctions on Limbic System Development", "Control of Cell Migration in Developing Brain", and "Control of Cell Migration in the Developing Hippocampus" Dr. Nowakowski is the author or co-author of 48 articles or book chapters in reviewed publications.

Pasko Rakic, MD, Sc.D.
Dory McConnell Duberg Chair in Neuroscience; Chairman, Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine

Major Fields of Research Interest: Developmental neurobiology; cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuronal proliferation, migration, axonal navigation and synaptogenesis; role of genetic and environmental factors in establishing neuronal organization of cerebellum, visual system and primate cerebral cortex.

Dr. Rakic has served as the President of the Society for Neuroscience and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious scientific awards. Dr. Rakic has authored over 209 publications, which have been quoted over 10,000 times. Collectively, his studies have made it possible to analyze the principles and mechanisms of mammalian brain development, including the complex primate cerebral cortex, at a cellular and molecular level and allowed extrapolation of basic research findings in nonhuman primates to the development of normal and abnormal human brain.

Robert Schultz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology; and Director of the Neuroimaging Research Program in Autism and Related Disorders, Yale University School of Medicine Child Study Center

Major field of interest: Developmental disabilities, clinical psychology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging and genetic forms of mental retardation, such as Willams Syndrome and Prader Syndrome.

Dr. Schultz specializes in clinical neuropsychology and neuroimaging in developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders, and coordinates the MRI and neuropsychological testing portions of the Willams Syndrome Program at Yale. He also co-directs the Neuropsychological Research Program at Yale with Dr. Ami Klin. In addition, Dr. Schultz serves as the Clinical and Research Director of the Child Study Center's Program for Genetic Forms of Mental Retardation.

James T. Winslow, Ph.D.
Director of NIMH IRP Neurobiology Non-Human Primate Core.

Dr.Winslow received his PhD in Psychopharmacology from Tufts University and had postdoctoral training at both NICHD and NIMH in Bethesda. After his postdoctoral training, he became a Research Associate for Hoechst-Marion-Roussel and then an Associate Professor at Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory University.

The mission of the NIMH IRP Neurobiology Non-Human Primate Core is to develop and provide support for assessment of non-human primate models to assist NIMH IRP research objectives, particularly those related to causes and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD
Section Chief, Surveillance and Epidemiology, Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Major Fields of Research Interest: Surveillance, field investigations and epidemiologic research with emphasis on developmental disabilities

Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp is an expert on the epidemiologic and clinical aspects of developmental disabilities and is currently engaged in a pilot epidemiologic study on the autism spectrum disorders as part of the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Study. Prior to joining the CDC in 1981, Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Einstein College of Medicine. She lectures on epidemiologic issues of developmental disabilities and is the author or co-author of 21 CDC or peer-reviewed publications.

Additional Reviewers for the 2005 Research Grant and Fellowship Applications: