معرفی
Li Yan McCurdy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, where she joined the faculty in January 2025. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating digital interventions for addiction recovery, with particular emphasis on social connection approaches.
Dr. McCurdy earned her PhD in neuroscience from Yale University in 2020, where she studied neural mechanisms for unlearning memories in fruit flies. She then completed two National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) T32 postdoctoral research fellowships at Yale: one in substance use prevention through the Division of Prevention and Community Research, and another in the Neuroimaging Sciences Training Program.
Her research program centers on facilitating addiction recovery through empowerment and social connection. Dr. McCurdy has developed a social support intervention designed to support individuals in early addiction recovery by increasing engagement with recovery community resources. Her work bridges neuroscience, clinical intervention development, and digital health technologies. Analysis of her publication record reveals a clear trajectory from basic neuroscience research using Drosophila models to clinical applications in addiction medicine. Her recent work (2023-2025) focuses predominantly on digital interventions for substance use disorders, gambling disorder, and compulsive sexual behaviors, with increasing emphasis on neuroimaging correlates of treatment response.
- CPDD Early Career Investigator Grant (2025)
Dr. McCurdy collaborates extensively with leading researchers in addiction medicine at Yale, including Marc Potenza, Brian Kiluk, Zu Wei Zhai, Charla Nich, Elise DeVito, and Grace Kong. Her research is supported by grants focused on developing and testing novel interventions for substance use disorders and related behavioral addictions, particularly examining how digital platforms can enhance traditional therapeutic approaches.
Her work is conducted through the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health and the Division of Substance Abuse within the Department of Psychiatry, where she contributes to both research and clinical training initiatives examining the intersection of neuroscience, digital health, and addiction recovery.