Susan Tapert

Susan Tapert, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Health Sciences. She directs groundbreaking longitudinal studies including the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence-Adulthood (NCANDA-A), where she serves as Associate Director/Site PI and Co-Director/Site PI respectively. Previously, she held leadership as Vice Chair of Academic Affairs (2019-2024) in her department.

Her NIH-funded research program examines neural risk factors and consequences of adolescent substance use through advanced neuroimaging and neuropsychological methods. Key focus areas include:

• Impact of alcohol, cannabis, and polysubstance use on developing brain systems
• Neurocognitive predictors of addiction trajectories
• Adolescent brain maturation in typical and high-risk populations
• Pandemic effects on youth mental health and behavior

Her 275+ publications demonstrate consistent focus on substance use neurobiology, adolescent development, and methodological innovation. Recent work (2024-2025) emphasizes multimodal brain imaging, wearable technology validation, digital phenotyping, and machine learning approaches to predict risk.

Major honors include:

• Research.com 2022 Best Female Scientist Award
• American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s Julius Axelrod Mentorship Award (2022)
• American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Outstanding Mentor Award (2021, 2016)
• Research Society on Alcoholism Marlatt Mentorship Award (2019)

She leads federally funded investigations including ABCD ($34M+), NCANDA ($26M+), and predictive modeling grants. Her mentorship extends through NIH training grants and leadership roles in national consortia.