Assistant Professor Jose Rodríguez-Romaguera, PhD, has been awarded the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation 2022 Young Investigator Award. The Foundation’s grants provide scientists with up to $70,000 to advance research focused on mental illness.

Assistant Professor Jose Rodríguez-Romaguera, PhD, has been awarded the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation 2022 Young Investigator Award. The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation is committed to alleviating the suffering caused by mental illness by awarding grants to advance research.

Rodríguez-Romaguera received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras and completed his postdoctoral training at UNC Chapel Hill, where he studied the neural circuits of arousal and motivation. Rodríguez-Romaguera is currently a principal investigator in the Department of Psychiatry, the Neuroscience Center, and the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disorders at UNC Chapel Hill. He also Co-Directs the Carolina Stress Initiative.

The Rodríguez-Romaguera Lab works to increase understanding of how the brain overcomes maladaptive states of arousal and anxiety, does basic science that may lead to improved health care options for patients suffering the burden of psychiatric disease, trains effective scientific thinkers who value communication and collaboration, and works to increase diversity within the neuroscience workforce.

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator grants provide each scientist with up to $35,000 per year for two years totaling $70,000 to enable promising investigators to either extend research fellowship training or begin careers as independent research faculty. The Foundation awarded the first Young Investigator Grant in 1987, and the goal of the program is to help researchers launch careers in neuroscience and psychiatry and gather pilot data to apply for larger federal and university grants.