Our Members

Brendon Watson, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychiatry and a physician-scientist with an interest in both basic neuroscience and translational neuroscience. His expertise is in how neural networks influence behavior, perception, and mood. His lab focuses on how sleep, circadian rhythms, stress and social factors affect mood-related circuits. Clinically, he is now a practicing general psychiatrist at the University of Michigan, specializing in treatment-refractory depression with an emphasis on trauma and personality influences on depression.

Dr. Watson completed his Ph.D. with Dr. Rafael Yuste, studying cortical microcircuit dynamics using calcium imaging at Columbia University. He went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. György Buzsaki, studying cortical circuits in sleep and wake cycles of freely behaving animals using silicon probes at New York University. Dr. Watson obtained his M.D. from Columbia University and completed his psychiatry residency at Cornell University Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital.