Scientific Advisory Board
The Beckley Foundation Scientific Advisory Board includes leading international scientists on the topics of consciousness, neuroscience, biochemistry, psychiatry and psychology. The distinguished scientists that have made up the Scientific Advisory Board include Albert Hofmann, Alexander Shulgin, Colin Blakemore, David Nutt and Les Iversen (both former Chairs of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs), David Nichols, and other notable scientists.
Scientific advisory board
Prof Valerie Curran PhD
Professor of Psychopharmacology at University College London. Principal Editor of Psychopharmacology since 2003.
Dr Mark Geyer PhD
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences and Vice-Chair for Scientific Affairs in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. Past President of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society. Scientific Advisor to European Union’s Innovative Medicine Initiative, and 2011 awardee of Bleuler Prize for Research in the Schizophrenias.
Prof David E. Nichols PhD
Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology, Purdue University, USA, and Adjunct Professor at the University of North Caroline Chapel Hill, NC. Previously member of numerous NIH, NIMH and NIDA advisory groups. President, Co-founder and Director of the Heffter Research Institute..
Prof David Nutt MD FRCP FRCPsych FMedSci
Director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College, London. Chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) and Vice-President of the European Brain Council. Past President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), the British Neuroscience Association and British Association of Psychopharmacology. Editor emeritus of the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Drug Science.
Prof Roger Pertwee MA DPhil DSc
Chair and Professor of Neuropharmacology at the University of Aberdeen, Director of Pharmacology for GW Pharmaceuticals, co-chairman of the International Union of Pharmacology (IUPHAR) Subcommittee on Cannabinoid Receptors.
Prof Vilayanur Ramachandran
MD PhD
Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition, Professor of the Psychology Department and Neuroscience Program, University of California, San Diego. Fellow of All Souls’ College, Oxford, and of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Behavioural Sciences at Stanford. Author of books including Phantoms in the Brain, The Tell-Tale Brain and The Emerging Mind.
Prof Trevor Robbins
PhD CBE FRS CBE FMedSci FBPsS
Head of Department of Psychology and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, Angharad Dodds John Fellow in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Downing College Cambridge.
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Scientific advisory board
Dr Albert Hofmann PhD
Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, was the founding member of the Beckley Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board until his death in April 2008 at the age of 102.
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Dr Alexander Shulgin PhD
Pharmacologist, chemist and psychoactive drug researcher. Author of PiHKAL, TiHKAL and The Shulgin Index. Sasha was a very dear friend of Amanda’s, and was an early member of the Scientific Advisory Board. He died in June 2014 at the age of 88.
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Dr Ronald Sandison
BSc MB BS FRC Psych AKC
Consultant Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist and Group Analyst. Consultant psychiatrist at Powick Hospital Worcester, 1952-1964, pioneering the use of LSD and psychedelic drugs as an adjunct to psychotherapy. Died age 94 in June 2010.
Prof Gustav Born
MA DPhil FRCP FRS FKC
Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology, London University. Professor at the William Harvey Research Institute, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College. Died aged 97 in April 2018.
Prof Lester Grinspoon MD
Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Author of many books including Marihuana Reconsidered, Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered and Marijuana: the Forbidden Medicine. Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychiatric Association, and was founding editor of the American Psychiatric Association Annual Review and the Harvard Mental Health Letter.
Prof Leslie L. Iverson PhD FRS
Visiting Professor of Pharmacology, University of Oxford and Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, UK. Former Director of the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit, Cambridge. Author of The Science of Marijuana. He died in July 2020 aged 82.
Dr Jordi Riba PhD
Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Associate Researcher at the Drug Research Center of the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona.
Prof Yuri E. Moskalenko PhD
Head of the Laboratory, Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences. Doctor of Sciences, Professor of Physiology, Honour Scientist of The Russian Federation, Academician of International Astronautics Academy.
Prof Gordon Claridge MA DSc PhD
Emeritus Professor of Abnormal Psychology in Oxford University and Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College. Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and Author of The Origins of Mental Illness and Schizotipy: Implications for Illness and Health.
Sir (Prof) Colin Blakemore
PhD FIBiol FMedSci FRS
Former Chief Executive of the British Medical Research Council (MRC). Waynflete Professor of Neuroscience and Philosophy in the School of Advanced Study, University of London and Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. Director of the Oxford Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience. Author of The Mind Machine, Mechanics of the Mind and Vision: Coding and Efficiency.
Prof Raphael Mechoulam
PhD
Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Past President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and previous Head of Natural Sciences Section, Israel Academy of Sciences. Editor of Cannabinoids As Therapeutics.