Huda Akil

Dr. Huda Akil is the Gardner Quarton Distinguished University Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and a Senior Research Professor in the Michigan Neuroscience Institute (MNI) at the University of Michigan.   Dr. Akil was born in Damascus, Syria, received her undergraduate education at the American University of Beirut, her PhD at UCLA and her post-doctoral training at Stanford University. Dr. Akil and her colleagues have made seminal contributions to the understanding of the brain biology of emotions, including pain, stress, anxiety and substance abuse. Her early work demonstrated the role of endorphins in pain and stress.