Rate My Professor Brooks Casas

Brooks Casas, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Psychology in Virginia Tech's College of Science and Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. He holds additional professorial appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the College of Engineering and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine in the School of Medicine. Casas received his A.B. in Philosophy in 1996 and Ph.D. in Psychology, specializing in Experimental Psychopathology, in 2005 from Harvard University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine from 2005 to 2007. His career at Virginia Tech began in 2010 as Assistant Professor in the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Department of Psychology, with promotion to Associate Professor in 2016 and to full Professor in 2023. Prior roles include Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine from 2007 to 2010 and Research Scientist positions at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Salem VA Medical Center.

Casas directs research on the neural computations supporting normative social behavior, focusing on valuation and learning in social contexts through decision neuroscience, behavioral economics, and social psychology. His work examines interpersonal trust, self-other interest balancing, lifespan risk preference changes under social influence, and decision-making abnormalities in psychopathologies including borderline personality disorder, substance abuse, and PTSD. With over 80 publications, notable contributions include 'Getting to know you: reputation and trust in a two-person economic exchange' (Science, 2005), 'The rupture and repair of cooperation in borderline personality disorder' (Science, 2008), and recent papers on adolescent brain development and substance use risks. He has secured multiple NIH R01 grants as principal or multiple principal investigator, such as R01 DA051573 on social influence in adolescent substance use and R01 MH122948 on neuromodulator signaling in decision-making. Awards include College of Science Faculty Fellow (2023), Virginia Tech Graduate School Outstanding Mentor Award (2022), and Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow (2012). Casas serves as Review Editor for Frontiers in Behavioral Economics, Associate Editor for Frontiers in Psychiatry, and on committees including the Research & Development Committee at Salem VA Medical Center.