Biography

Adele Diamond, Ph.D., is the Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. Her work integrates developmental, cognitive, neuroscience, and molecular genetic approaches to examine fundamental questions about the development of the cognitive control abilities that rely on a region of the brain known as ‘prefrontal cortex’ and has changed medical practice worldwide for the treatment of PKU (phenylketonuria) and for the type of ADHD without hyperactivity. Her recent work, including a paper in the journal, Science, is affecting early education practices around the world.

Diamond received her BA from Swarthmore College Phi Beta Kappa (in Sociology-Anthropology and Psychology), her PhD from Harvard (in Developmental Psychology), and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale with Patricia Goldman-Rakic (in Neuroanatomy). She received a YWCA Woman of Distinction this year and in 2001 was named one of the “2000 Outstanding Women of the 20th Century.” Her work has been featured on the Public Television series, Scientific Am. Frontiers Series with Alan Alda, and in shows on the CBC, CTV, & NPR, and in articles in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, & the Vancouver Sun. A recipient of many awards, she was named a Distinguished Scientific Lecturer by the American Psychological Association and has received a Canada Fund for Innovation Award.  Her research has been continuously funded by NIH & NSF since she was a graduate student.

She created and organizes the immensely popular international biennial conference on “Brain Development and Learning Conference: Making Sense of the Science” in Vancouver, which presents exciting scientific findings in neuroscience and child development in ways that people working on the frontlines -- parents, teachers, doctors, social workers, and others -- can understand, see the immediate relevance of, and USE.  Seehttp://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/bdl.html for information about the next conference in this series which will be July 16-20, 2010 in Vancouver.