Nora Volkow was born on 27 March 1956 and is a Mexican-American psychiatrist.
14 Facts About Nora Volkow
2.
Nora Volkow is currently the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
3.
In 2014, Nora Volkow participated in an event organized by The Moth at a World Science Festival, where scientists, writers and artists told stories of their personal relationships with science.
4.
Nora Volkow conducted research work with Professor Alan Swann, now at Baylor, leaving to Brookhaven in 1987.
5.
Nora Volkow spent most of her professional career at the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, where she held several leadership positions.
6.
Nora Volkow was first a researcher at BNL, and then Director of Nuclear Medicine, Director of the NIDA-DOE Regional Neuroimaging Center at BNL, and finally Associate Director for Life Sciences at BNL.
7.
Nora Volkow was appointed as a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University and as Associate Dean for its Medical School.
8.
When Nora Volkow moved to the University of Texas, studying patients with schizophrenia was not an option, but studying patients with cocaine addiction was possible.
9.
Nora Volkow concludes that abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex create a feeling of need or craving that people with addictions find difficult to prevent.
10.
Nora Volkow argues that this makes it difficult to override compulsions by exercising cognitive control.
11.
Nora Volkow suggests that people with addictions are caught in a vicious circle of physical brain changes and the psychological consequences of those changes, leading to further changes.
12.
Nora Volkow is the first person from the NIH to visit the Dalai Lama at his residence in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India.
13.
Nora Volkow has been recognized for her contributions, both before and during her time at NIDA.
14.
Nora Volkow is married to Stephen Adler, a radioimaging physicist at the National Cancer Institute.