Alexander Shackman

Dr. Alexander Shackman is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, specializing in clinical and cognitive neuroscience. He leads the Affective and Translational Neuroscience Laboratory, focusing on understanding anxiety-related states, traits, and disorders through neuroimaging and behavioral studies. His work is supported by NIH grants and has resulted in ~100 publications (h-index: 52). He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science and co-edited The Nature of Emotion. Dr. Shackman is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and collaborates internationally with researchers in Germany, China, and South Korea. His research integrates MRI, PET, and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to study the biological bases of anxiety and internalizing disorders.

Education: Ph.D. in Biological Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008). Research interests include the neurobiology of fear/anxiety, psychiatric nosology, and graduate student mental health. He teaches courses on temperament, personality, and clinical science. His lab emphasizes open science practices, as evidenced by student awards for transparent research methods.

Awards include recognition from the UMD Graduate School (Pelczar Award) and leadership roles in NIH study sections. Notable collaborations include the ENIGMA Anxiety and HiTOP consortia. Dr. Shackman’s lab also investigates the impact of real-world emotional experiences on mental health outcomes and the neural mechanisms underlying dispositional negativity.