Eric J. Nestler

Eric J. Nestler is an American neuroscientist and academic psychiatrist whose work focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying drug addiction, depression, and stress-related psychiatric disorders. He is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Scientific Officer the Mount Sinai Health System. He was formerly the Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience and a founding director of The Friedman Brain Institute at Mount Sinai. Previously, he served as founding director of the Division of Molecular Psychiatry at Yale University and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Nestler is known for elucidating how transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms—including the transcription factor ΔFosB—produce long-lasting changes in brain reward and stress circuits that contribute to addiction, depression, and stress resilience. He has authored or co-authored several widely used textbooks in psychiatry and neuroscience, such as Neurobiology of Mental Illness and Molecular Neuropharmacology, and more than 700 peer-reviewed articles. He has also held leadership roles in major professional societies, including serving as president of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Society for Neuroscience, and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to neuropsychiatric research.