Sari Izenwasser, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She received her B.A.
in Psychology in 1980 from Florida International University and M.A. and Ph.D. (1987)
degrees in Psychology from Boston University. Dr. Izenwasser did a postdoctoral
fellowship at Louisiana State University Medical School followed by a Research
Assistantship at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Subsequently,
she joined the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Intramural Research Program,
where she was awarded a National Research Council Fellowship followed by a Senior
Staff Fellowship. Her NIDA-funded research is focused on studying factors that mediate
the effects of stimulants, cannabinoids, and nicotine on behavior and neurochemistry
in adolescents. Recently, her research has concentrated on age and sex differences in
response to drugs of abuse, with a focus on adolescence. She has published numerous
papers on the behavioral and neurochemical effects of drugs of abuse. Dr. Izenwasser
won the Joseph Cochin Young Investigator Award from the College on Problems of
Drug Dependence in 1999, and later served on the Board of Directors of the organization.
Currently, she is the President of the Miami Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.