DR. GARY SMALL

Dr. Gary Small is a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute and directs the Memory and Aging Research Center and the UCLA Center on Aging. He is one of the world’s leading experts on brain science and has published numerous books and articles. Scientific American magazine named him one of the world’s top innovators in science and technology, and he frequently appears on The Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20, and CNN. In his most recent book, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind (Collins), Small reveals the remarkable brain evolution caused by the constant presence of technology today. He examines this evolution’s widespread interpersonal, professional, social, and political impact on our lives and offers exercises for the digital immigrants and digital natives alike to help everyone thrive in this ever-changing environment.

Small lectures extensively throughout the United States to lay and professional audiences. He has been a national spokesperson for numerous organizations. He has been a featured lecturer at the national meetings of numerous organizations, including the Alzheimer’s Associations, AARP, American Psychiatric Association, American Geriatrics Society, American Medical Directors Association, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging, and many others. Small also frequently advises executives and managers in major corporations, such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Lilly, Forest, Novartis, Merck, Dupont, Siemens, Radica, Mattel, and many others.

Small invented the first brain scan that allows doctors to see the physical evidence of brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease in living people. Among his numerous breakthrough research studies, he now leads a team of neuroscientists who are demonstrating that exposure to computer technology causes rapid and profound changes in brain neural circuitry.

Small’s research team, supported by the National Institutes on Health as well as major national foundations, has published in the leading scientific and medical journals (Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), and has made the headlines of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and USA Today, among other publications.

In addition to his work on brain science, he has over 20 years of extensive clinical experience in treating young adult, middle-aged, and older individuals as a practicing psychiatrist, after completing his clinical training in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Small was the host and executive producer of a public television special, Dr. Gary Small’s Memory Bible, which aired nationally during a 2004 PBS pledge drive. Small also helped to develop a new hand-held brain game with Radica, to compete with Nintendo’s Brain Age.