Nora D. Volkow, M.D. is the Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 

Before assuming this position on May 1, 2003, Dr. Volkow was Associate Director for Life Sciences at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Director of Nuclear Medicine at BNL and Director of the NIDA-Department of Energy Regional Neuroimaging Center at BNL.  She was also Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and Associate Dean for the Medical School at SUNY-Stony Brook. 

Dr. Volkow received her M.D. in 1981 from the National University of Mexico, in Mexico City, Mexico, and performed her residency in psychiatry at New York University.

Her main area of interest is the investigation of the mechanisms underlying the reinforcing, addictive, and toxic properties of drugs of abuse in the human brain.  Dr. Volkow was the first to use imaging to investigate the neurochemical changes in the human brain that occur during drug addiction.  Her studies have documented a decrease in function of the dopamine system in addicted subjects that is associated with a disruption in function of frontal brain regions involved in motivation and drive.  Her work has also focused on the investigation of the neurochemical mechanisms responsible for intersubject variability in response to drugs of abuse and its potential link to vulnerability to drug abuse and alcoholism. 

Dr. Volkow has also used imaging to investigate the effects of stimulant drugs with respect to both their rewarding as well as therapeutic actions.  By doing a systematic comparison of the pharmacological effects of cocaine (one of the most addictive drug of abuse) and of methylphenidate (a drug used to treat children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in the human brain, her studies have highlighted the relevance that drug pharmacokinetics play in enabling the reinforcing effects of stimulant drugs to occur.  These studies have also shown that stimulant drugs, when used therapeutically, amplify DA signals in the brain, enhancing the saliency of a stimulus and thus improving attention and performance.

She has also used imaging to investigate the changes in the dopamine system that occur with aging and their functional significance.  Her work has documented that the loss of dopamine brain function with age in healthy subjects with no evidence of neurological dysfunction is nonetheless associated with motor slowing and with changes in performance of cognitive tasks that involve executive functions.  Her work now focuses on strategies to minimize the age-related losses in dopamine brain activity as a means to improve quality of life in the elderly.

Dr. Volkow has authored or coauthored more than 320 peer-reviewed publications, three edited books, and more than 55 book chapters and non-peer reviewed manuscripts.  She is the recipient of multiple awards for her research, and has been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine in the National Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Volkow was named “Innovator of the Year” in 2000 by US News and World Report.