UCI Health psychiatrist Dr. Cameron Carter is elected to National Academy of Medicine

Distinguished Professor is recognized for advances in cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry

Orange, Calif. — Dr. Cameron S. Carter, Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the nation’s highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

Election to NAM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Carter was chosen for his pioneering work in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry, which has furthered scientific understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying serious mental illness and informed the development of new treatments.

“I’m honored to be elected to the National Academy of Medicine and look forward to contributing to its mission of advancing medical science to promote optimal health for all,” said Carter, who also sees patients at UCI Health Psychiatry Services.

“My passion is mental health, disorders of which cause some of the greatest suffering experienced by human beings. My clinical work centers on early intervention to enhance recovery in young people in the early phases of mental illness. My research applies the tools and constructs of cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging to gain insights into the causes and mechanisms underlying serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and seeks to develop clinical and neuroimaging tools that inform new treatments and help personalize care for each individual we serve.”

Shifting research paradigms

A psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Carter is internationally renowned for his research bridging basic cognitive and clinical neuroscience, leading to paradigm shifts in mental health research. He conducted some of the first event-related functional MRI studies in the 1990s, introducing an influential network model of the frontal cortex that continues to shape the field today.

His progressive use of neuroimaging to examine brain circuitry disruptions has yielded major insights into schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism, all of which have helped improve diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Influencing psychiatric science

Carter has published more than 380 peer-reviewed papers and has been cited more than 97,000 times. His leadership has influenced the direction of modern psychiatric science. His founding editorship of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging has helped cement the central role that clinical cognitive neuroscience plays in contemporary psychiatric research.

Prior to joining UC Irvine, Carter earned a medical degree at the University of Western Australia and completed a psychiatry residency at the University of California, Davis, where he later served as director of the Imaging Research Center and was the inaugural appointee to the C. Bryan Cameron Presidential Chair in Neuroscience. He has received numerous honors, including the George N. Thompson Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry and the Patricia Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.

UC Irvine now has seven faculty who are members of the National Academy of Medicine, affirming the university’s national prominence in health and medical sciences.

New members of NAM are elected by current members in recognition of major contributions to medical sciences, healthcare and public health. Established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, NAM provides independent, evidence-based advice to address complex health and policy issues and works alongside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.