Bryan Kolb
Program
Child and Brain Development
Appointment
Senior Fellow
Institution
University of Lethbridge
Country
Canada 
Dr. Bryan Kolb has long been considered one of the world’s most influential neuroscientists and recently served as the Associate Director of CIFAR’s Child & Brain Development program. Dr. Kolb has been described as a “founding father of behavioural neuroscience.” He combines neuroscience and psychology to examine the important interplay between experiences, neuron changes, and behavior.
Dr. Kolb’s research focuses on how neurons in the cerebral cortex change in response to experiences, drugs, hormones and injury, and how these changes influence behavior. His work has fueled new treatments to help victims of stroke, Alzheimer’s, drug abuse and head injury. Dr. Kolb was the first to demonstrate how new brain cells grow to restore cerebral function and that psychomotor stimulants produce permanent changes in neuronal structure.
Dr. Kolb conducts his research at the University of Lethbridge, where he is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. He is also an Adjunct Professor at both the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. He obtained his PhD at Pennsylvania State University and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Kolb is the author of several books, including An Introduction to Brain and Behaviour and Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology. The latter is now in its sixth edition and is used internationally as a standard senior text. In 2008, he was awarded honorary degrees from Thompson Rivers University and UBC Okanagan.
