The WSU Honors College
Brendan M. Walker, Ph.D.
Honors College Distinguished Professor and Professor of Psychology
Dr. Walker received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2004 and completed his post-doctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA in 2007 prior to initiating The Laboratory of Alcoholism and Addictions Neuroscience at WSU in 2008. In 2012, Dr. Walker was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama at the White House for his research on alcohol dependence and withdrawal, his scientific mentoring and early life community service. Dr. Walker’s research is primarily focused on understanding how the brain changes following chronic exposure to alcohol and drugs of abuse and uses that information to contribute to drug development efforts to treat alcoholism and drug addiction. Dr. Walker actively incorporates Honors College students in his research endeavors, often leading to primary authorships in scientific journals for those students.