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Robert Sapolsky is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and Professor of Biology, Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery at Stanford University. He earned a B.A. in Human Biology from Harvard University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Biology from Rockefeller University in 1978. Following postdoctoral fellowships at Rockefeller University from 1979 to 1983, he joined Stanford as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in 1983, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1987, and became a full Professor of Biology that year. In 1997, he assumed the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professorship. Sapolsky also serves as a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research in Kenya.
Sapolsky's research specializations in biology encompass neuroendocrinology, focusing on the effects of stress and glucocorticoids on the brain and behavior. His studies examine how these hormones exacerbate neuronal death due to insults like ischemia, excitotoxicity, seizures, and HIV neurotoxicity, using in vitro hippocampal cultures, rodent models, and field observations of wild baboon troops in Kenya to explore social stress physiology. He has advanced gene therapy techniques with viral vectors to overexpress neuroprotective genes such as Bcl-2, HSP72, and calbindin. Major publications include books 'Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers' (1994), 'A Primate's Memoir' (2001), 'The Trouble with Testosterone' (1997), 'Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst' (2017), and 'Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will' (2023). Influential papers address glucocorticoid endangerment of the hippocampus and primate stress responses. Awards include the MacArthur Fellowship (1987), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1984-1986), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), and the National Academy of Sciences (2002). His work has shaped fields of stress biology and behavioral neuroscience.
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