Robert T. Gerlai

Dr. Gerlai received his Ph.D. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with the highest distinction in 1989. He has held numerous academic positions in Europe and North America (Eötvös University of Budapest, Mount Sinai Hospital Research Institute of Toronto, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, University of Hawaii Honolulu), and he also held leadership positions in the US biotechnology and biopharmaceutical research industry working as a senior research scientist and Vice...See more

Dr. Gerlai received his Ph.D. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with the highest distinction in 1989. He has held numerous academic positions in Europe and North America (Eötvös University of Budapest, Mount Sinai Hospital Research Institute of Toronto, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, University of Hawaii Honolulu), and he also held leadership positions in the US biotechnology and biopharmaceutical research industry working as a senior research scientist and Vice President (Genentech Inc. South San Francisco, Eli Lilly & Co. Indianapolis, Saegis Pharma Half Moon Bay) before joining the University of Toronto in 2004, where he is currently full professor at the Department of Psychology. Dr. Gerlai has published over 200 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals and books with a cumulative citation number over 12000 and an H index of 55. He is member of editorial boards of PLOS ONE, Learning and Behavior, Genes Brain and Behaviour, Neurotoxicology and Teratology. He is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Genetics of Complex Traits, Review Editor for Frontiers in Neuroscience and Section Editor for BioMedCentral Neuroscience. He has edited several special issues of scientific journals and served as co-editor of handbooks on molecular genetic approaches in behavioural neuroscience. He is founding member of the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society, IBANGS. He was the president of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS) in 2007 and 2008, and he has been elected Fellow of this Society since 2005. He received the Distinguished Scientist Award from IBANGS in 2013 and the John Wiley Distinguished Speaker Award from the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology in 2014. In 2015, he was awarded the University of Toronto Mississauga Excellence in Research Award. Dr. Gerlai's research focusses on the biological and genetic mechanisms of behaviour. For the past fourteen years his research at University of Toronto has been using zebrafish employing behavioural phenotyping, psychopharmacological and genetic methods to study mechanisms of alcohol abuse, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and of learning and memory. His laboratory has been funded by NIH, NSERC and Brain Canada. See less