Stuart M. Zola, PhD
Director, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center; Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory School of Medicine; and Senior Research Career Scientist, Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center
Dr. Zola is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians as well as the Society of American Magicians. He recently performed in a close-up competition at the IBM. He came in 28th out of 27 contenders!!!
Charlene Hill, Dr. Zola's spouse, is a jewelry maker who also performs magic and is considered by many to be a much better magician than Dr. Zola.
One of the nation’s leading neuroscientists, Dr. Stuart Zola has contributed valuable insights into how the brain organizes memory, and how this relates to memory problems such as amnesia. He also is regarded as a leader in the movement to better communicate science and research to the public.
As the director of the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Dr. Zola oversees diverse research programs that address health issues such as AIDS, malaria, cocaine addiction, cardiovascular disease, childhood visual deficits, and organ transplantation. Scientists at Yerkes also study social behavior in non-human primates, the neurological and genetic bases of behavior, and the effects of aging on memory and cognition.
Dr. Zola’s own research focuses on memory, its formation, consolidation, and retrieval. He is perhaps best known for developing an animal model of human amnesia that conclusively identified brain structures that play important roles in memory function. His most recent work focuses on patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and involving the development of behavioral assays, including infrared eyetracking, to detect early onset of dementia.
Before joining Emory in September 2001, Dr. Zola held joint appointments as professor in the departments of psychiatry and neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. He also held the position of Research Career Scientist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Diego, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to scientific research.
Dr. Zola is a member of numerous scientific and professional societies, including the Society for Neuroscience and the National Association for Biomedical Research, and serves on the editorial advisory boards of the journals Cognitive Brain Research and Behavioral and Neural Biology. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in neuroscience at Northeastern University in Boston.
Yerkes is one of eight national primate research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Yerkes has a long and distinguished record of accomplishments in research, humane animal care, and animal propagation and conservation.