Nim Tottenham, PhD is a Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and Director of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Her research examines the development of the neurobiology associated with mature emotional behavior in humans. Her work has highlighted fundamental changes in amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuitry across childhood and adolescence and the powerful role that early experiences, such as caregiving and stress, have on the developmental trajectories of these circuits. Dr. Tottenham's studies use fMRI, behavioral, and physiological methods to examine human limbic-cortical development in children and adolescents as well as in their parents. She has authored over 70 journal articles and book chapters and is a frequent lecturer both nationally and internationally on human brain development and emotional development. She provides service to numerous scientific communities including the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, Society for Social Neuroscience, Society for Research in Child Development, and the Flux Congress. She is a recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Troland Research Award, National Institute of Mental Health Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) Award, the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, and the Developmental Science Early Career Researcher Prize, and she is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in Developmental Psychology and Neuroscience and trained at the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Principal Investigator