Therese A. Kosten

Therese A. Kosten, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. She serves as Director of the Developmental, Cognitive, & Behavioral Neuroscience Program and Director of the Michael C. Gibson Addiction Research Program. She is also the Principal Investigator in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and Scientific Director of the UH Animal Behavior Core. Her affiliations include the Biology of Behavior Institute, Texas Research on Addiction Consortium, Texas Institute of Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (advisory board), and the UH Drug Discovery Institute (steering committee).

Dr. Kosten received her B.A. in Psychology from Purchase College in 1978 and her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1986, where her research focused on neural mechanisms of taste and feeding behavior. She began her addiction research training under Eric J. Nestler and Bruce J. Rounsaville at Yale University School of Medicine, where she remained on faculty until 2006. She then joined Baylor College of Medicine as Associate Professor and later Professor in Psychiatry before moving to the University of Houston in 2014.

Her research expertise lies at the intersection of developmental cognitive neuroscience and addiction, with a strong emphasis on translational models, behavioral pharmacology, and the biological underpinnings of substance use disorders. She is actively involved in multiple scientific organizations including the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, Research Society on Alcoholism, Society for Neuroscience, and the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology. She also serves on the organizing committee for the conference Behavior, Biology, and Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction.

Dr. Kosten teaches undergraduate and graduate courses such as Physiological Psychology, Psychopharmacology, and Principles and Theories of Learning and Motivation. She is currently accepting graduate students through the Psychology Graduate Admissions program at UH.

Her leadership in research infrastructure, including the Animal Behavior Core and multi-institutional consortia, underscores her role as a central figure in advancing addiction science at the University of Houston.

She is a member of the following scientific organizations:

• College on Problems of Drug Dependence
• Research Society on Alcoholism
• Society for Neuroscience
• International Society for Developmental Psychobiology
• Behavior, Biology, and Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction (organizing committee)

Dr. Kosten advises graduate students and leads a research program supported by institutional and likely external funding, though specific grants are not detailed. Her work bridges basic neuroscience with clinical applications in addiction, contributing to both academic training and translational discovery.

She is involved in the following research centers and institutes:

• Biology of Behavior Institute (UH)
• Texas Research on Addiction Consortium (UH)
• Texas Institute of Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (advisory board)
• UH Drug Discovery Institute (steering committee)
• UH Animal Behavior Core (Scientific Director)