Joshua A. Gordon

Gordon obtained a doctorate in neuroscience from UCSF in 1995 and a MD degree in 1997. During his PhD he characterized the developmental processing underlying the emergence of vision in mice.^[3] He later served as a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University where his research focused on the neurobiology of mental illnesses.^[4]

In 2016, Gordon was appointed as Director of NIMH to replace Thomas Insel.^[1] He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018.^[5]

In 2024, Gordon returned to Columbia University to become the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Gordon's studies have helped in understanding the neurobiological factors contributing to anxiety, depression and schizophrenia.^[6] He has utilized various techniques such as optogenetics and modeling to examine the neural pathways involved in these disorders.^[7][8] He has campaigned for more financial resources for mental health investigations and has been an activist against the social isolation of people with mental health problems.^{[9][10][11][6]} In 2025, he criticized attempts by the Trump administration to remove data on gender identity from the NIMH Data Archive.^[12]