Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research laboratory, the Huberman Lab, has made significant contributions to our understanding of brain development, the neuroscience of visual perception and repair from blinding diseases such as glaucoma, the neural mechanisms of stress and resilience and neural plasticity—the nervous system’s ability to change and learn in response to experience.
Dr. Huberman earned his bachelor’s degree with honors and distinction from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1998), completed a master’s degree at UC Berkeley (2000) and earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from UC Davis in 2004, where he received the Allan G. Marr Prize for the Best Ph.D. Dissertation. He conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University School of Medicine from 2005 to 2010 and was awarded a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship.
His first faculty position was from 2011 to 2015 at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Neurosciences and the Neurobiology Section in the Division of Biological Sciences. In 2016, he was hired by the Stanford University School of Medicine as a tenured professor, where he currently directs the Huberman Laboratory. Dr. Huberman’s lab has published numerous peer-reviewed research and review articles in the highest-tier journals including Nature, Cell, Science and Neuron.
Across his career, Dr. Huberman has published over 75 peer-reviewed articles in top scientific journals including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, Current Biology, and Journal of Neuroscience. He has delivered more than 100 invited research and keynote seminars around the world, and he was a regular member of NIH grant review panels and contributor to the National Eye Institutes Audacious Goals Initiative to cure blindness. His research as a PhD student, postdoc and tenured professor made important discoveries into how the brain processes visual information, how brain circuits develop and function and are modified by experience. He has also published a human randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of stress mitigation tools and ways to improve sleep, heart rate variability and mood.
His research includes key areas such as visual circuit development; the molecular mechanisms that guide precise wiring between the eye and brain; how the brain processes the direction of visual motion; visual and brain circuits for circadian rhythm generation and timing; stress and threat detection circuits in the brain and discovery of neural pathways that trigger defensive behaviors; neural regeneration and methods to promote repair of damaged neural connections; and stress and performance, focusing on how visual inputs and breathing patterns influence brain states.
His research accomplishments have earned him numerous prestigious honors and awards, including the Cogan Award in 2017 for making crucial contributions to vision science and ophthalmology, the McKnight Neuroscience Scholar Award in 2013, and the Pew Biomedical Scholar Award in 2013 for his work on visual circuit function and plasticity. He was awarded the ARCS Foundation Graduate Fellowship for the best PhD dissertation and the Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Dr. Huberman served on the editorial boards of Current Biology, The Journal of Comparative Neurology, Journal of Neuroscience and Cell Reports and he has reviewed papers for Nature, Science, PNAS, Cell, Neuron and many other top tier journals. He also served on multiple grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health.
He co-directed the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory course on "Vision: a platform for linking cell types, circuits and perception," training the next generation of vision researchers.
In his teaching roles, Dr. Huberman has taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses in neuroscience, neuroanatomy, and developmental neurobiology at both UCSD and Stanford. He has served as Course Director for Neuroanatomy for Stanford medical students and has mentored dozens of undergrads, Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows- many of whom have now hold successful careers as professors in academia and research, directorship roles in biotech and/or clinical practices as M.D.s.
Dr. Huberman's laboratory uses techniques including optogenetics, viral tracing and viral control of circuit activity, single and multi-unit electrophysiology, behavioral analysis and virtual reality to understand how neural circuits control complex behaviors. Recent work has explored how brief structured breathing practices can enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal, offering practical applications for stress management and performance optimization.
Work from the Huberman Laboratory has been featured in major media outlets including TIME, BBC, Scientific American, and Discover, reflecting the scientific significance of his discoveries and their relevance to public health and wellbeing. Through his combination of academic research, innovative experiments, and effective science communication, Dr. Huberman bridges the gap between laboratory discoveries and real-world applications, making neuroscience accessible and actionable for millions of people worldwide.
In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast. It quickly became and remains the most popular health and science podcast in the world, frequently ranking #1 in that category across platforms and in the top 10 of all podcasts, as well as consistently holding the #1 position in science and education categories. Through the Huberman Lab podcast, Dr. Huberman translates science and science-based tools into actionable protocols for improving brain function, enhancing mood and energy, optimizing physical health and performance and developing new skills and behaviors.
He is the author of the upcoming book "Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body," a guide to applying neuroscience principles to improve health and performance.
Dr. Huberman is the co-founder of Scicomm Media, the parent company of both Huberman Lab and Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin.
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