Distinguished Professor, Psychiatry & Human Behavior
School of Medicine

Distinguished Professor, Neurobiology and Behavior
School of Biological Sciences

Professor, Biomedical Engineering
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering

Director, Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries

Depression; Anhedonia; Neuroimaging; Electrophysiology; Biomarkers; Translational Research

Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries

1998-1999: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, KEY Institute for Brain-Mind Research, University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland (Dietrich Lehmann, MD)

1999-2000: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience, Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA (Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.)

2000-2002: Assistant Scientist, W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior and Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience, Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin, WI, USA, Madison (Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.)

2002: Associate Scientist, W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior and Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience, Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin, WI, USA Madison (Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.)

2002-2006: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

2006-2010: John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

2010-2014: Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

2014-2024: Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

2024-2027: Visiting Professor of Psychiatry, Oxford University (Department of Psychiatry)

The main goals of Dr. Pizzagalli's research are to improve our understanding of the psychological, environmental, and neurobiological factors associated with mood disorders, particularly major depression. To this end, he integrates behavioral, electrophysiological, neuroimaging, and, more recently, pharmacological approaches and preclinical models to investigate three putative endophenotypes of depression: anhedonia (loss of pleasure), increased stress sensitivity, and executive function deficits.

• Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychophysiology, Society for Psychophysiological Research (2006)
• Hazel Chair (2007-2010)
• Early Career Award, The EEG & Clinical Neuroscience Society (2007)
• NARSAD Independent Investigator Award (2008)
• Full Member, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2012)
• Honorary Master of Arts (A.M.) degree, Harvard University (2014)
• Anne M. Cataldo Excellence in Mentoring Award, McLean Hospital (2015)
• Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) award, National Institute of Mental Health (2016)
• The Stuart T. Hauser, M.D. Ph.D. Mentorship Award in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School (2017)
• Joel Elkes Research Award, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2017)
• Fellow, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2018)
• NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (2018)
• Anna-Monika-Prize for Research in the Neurobiology and Treatment of Depressive Disorders, Anna-Monika-Foundation (2019)
• Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science) (2019 – present)
• Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) award, National Institute of Mental Health (2020)
• Neuropsychopharmacology Editors’ Award for Reviews (NEAR), American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2020)
• Visiting Professorship, University of Oxford (2024-2027)
• Christensen Fellowships, St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford (2024)
• 2023 Gerald L. Klerman Senior Investigator Award, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (2024)
• Guze Endowed Lecture, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University (2025)
• CINP AsCNP Brain Health Clinical Research Award (International College of Neuropsychopharmacology) (2025)
• Visiting Fellowship, New College, University of Oxford (2026)

Dr. Pizzagalli received his M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (1998) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and did post-doctoral work at University of Wisconsin, Madison. From 2002-2010 he was a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, where he served as the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences. In 2010, he was recruited to McLean Hospital to serve as the Founding Director of the Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, as well as the Director of the McLean Imaging Center. Until 12/2024, Dr. Pizzagalli was a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Since 2024, he is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford, UK. In 2025, he joined the University of California at Irvine as the Founding Director of the Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, and the Noel Drury MD Endowed Chair. He is also the Center Director for a Silvio O. Conte Center for Basic Translational Mental Health Research focused on the neurobiology of and novel treatment targets for depression.

• Admon R, Kaiser RH, Dillon DG, Beltzer M, Goer F, Olson DP, Vitaliano G, Pizzagalli DA. (2017). Dopaminergic enhancement of striatal response to reward in major depression. Am J Psychiatry 174:378-86.
• Admon R, Pizzagalli DA (2015). Corticostriatal pathways contribute to the natural time course of positive mood. Nat Commun. 2015 Dec 7;6:10065. doi: 10.1038/ncomms10065.
• Ang Y-S, Frontero N, Belleau E, Pizzagalli DA (2020). Disentangling vulnerability, state and trait features of neurocognitive impairments in depression. Brain 143:3865-3877.
• Ang Y-S, Kaiser R, Deckersbach T, Almeida J, Phillips ML, […], Pizzagalli DA (2020). Pretreatment reward sensitivity and frontostriatal resting-state functional connectivity are associated with response to bupropion after sertraline non-response. Biol Psychiatry 88:657-667.
• Kaiser RH, Andrews-Hanna JR, Wager TD, Pizzagalli DA (2015). Large-scale network dysfunction in Major Depressive Disorder: A meta-analysis of resting-state functional connectivity. JAMA Psychiatry 72:603-11.
• Krystal AD, Pizzagalli DA, Smoski M, Mathew SJ, Nurnberger J, Jr., et al. (2020). A randomized proof-of-mechanism trial applying the 'fast-fail' approach to evaluating ?-opioid antagonism as a treatment for anhedonia. Nature Medicine 26:760-768.
• Pizzagalli DA (2011). Frontocingulate dysfunction in depression: Towards biomarkers of treatment response. Neuropsychopharmacology Review 36, 183-206.
• Pizzagalli DA (2014). Depression, stress, and anhedonia: Toward a synthesis and integrated model. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 10:393-423.
• Pizzagalli DA (2022). Toward a better understanding of the mechanisms and pathophysiology of anhedonia: Are we ready for translation? American Journal of Psychiatry 179:458-469.
• Pizzagalli, D.A. (2022). Anhedonia: Preclinical, Translational, and Clinical Integration. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences Series, Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09683-9.
• Pizzagalli DA, Berretta S, et al (2019). Assessment of striatal dopamine transporter binding in individuals with major depressive disorder: In vivo PET and postmortem evidence. JAMA Psychiatry 76:854-861.
• Pizzagalli DA, Roberts AC. (2022). Prefrontal cortex and depression. Neuropsychopharmacology 47:225-246.
• Pizzagalli DA, Webb CA, Dillon DG, Tenke CE, Kayser J, Goer F, Fava M, et al. (2018) Pretreatment rostral anterior cingulate cortex theta activity in relation to symptom improvement in depression: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry 75:547-554.
• Treadway MT, Waskom ML, Dillon DG, Holmes AJ, Park MT, Chakravarty MM, et al., Pizzagalli DA (2015). Illness progression, recent stress, and morphometry of hippocampal subfields and medial prefrontal cortex in major depression. Biol Psychiatry 77:285-94.
• Whitton AE, Webb CA, Dillon DG, […], Pizzagalli DA (2019). Pretreatment rostral anterior cingulate cortex connectivity with salience network predicts depression recovery: Findings from the EMBARC randomized clinical trial. Biol Psychiatry 85:872-880.
• Zhukovsky P, Trivedi MH, Weissman M, Parsey R, Kennedy S, Pizzagalli DA (2025). Generalizability of treatment outcome prediction across antidepressant treatment trials in depression. JAMA Network Open. 2025 Mar 3;8(3):e251310.

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Human Electrophysiology
University of Zurich, Switzerland 1998—1999

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Affective Neuroscience
University of Wisconsin-Madison 1999—2002

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=7304

Last updated
05/06/2025