Jens Pruessner

Dr. Pruessner is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery. He is also the Director of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging as well as the director of the Aging and Alzheimer Research Axis at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. He specializes in the fields of aging, psychoneuroendocrinology, and neuroimaging. His research themes deal with stress perception and processing, effects of chronic stress on the aging process, and factors of vulnerability and resilience. With his team, he developed and validated the mental arithmetic task for stress induction in neuroimaging settings, the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST). This task allows the investigation of brain activations associated with the metabolic response to stress. Since 2003, Dr. Pruessner has coordinated multiple undergraduate and graduate courses at McGill University. His lab team comprises ten graduate students, whom he encourages to freely explore psychology and neuroscience, guiding them to draw their own conclusions. Dr. Pruessner has received many accolades from his peers, such as a Young Investigator Award in 2000 from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). In addition, Dr. Pruessner accepted a chercheur-boursier Junior 2 from FRSQ in 2002, a CIHR New Investigator Award in 2005, an ISPNE Curt Richter Young Investigator Award in 2008, and a CCNP Young Investigator Award in 2009.