William “Scott” Killgore

Neuropsychologist Killgore joins UA College of Medicine

Clinical neuropsychologist William “Scott” Killgore was appointed professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.

Killgore’s work includes neuroimaging methods to study the role of emotion in complex cognitive processes such as moral judgment, decision-making and risk-taking. He also is interested in how brain-behavior systems may be affected by environmental and lifestyle factors, such as insufficient sleep, nutrition, light exposure, physical activity, and stimulants such as caffeine.

At the UA, he will study methods for accelerating recovery from mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. He is a member of the UA transdisciplinary research group MESH (Mechanisms of Emotion, Social Relationships and Health).

His research is funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to address critical performance and mental-health needs of active military personnel and returning combat veterans. Killgore served in Iraq.

He previously was at Harvard Medical School as an associate professor of psychology. He also was director of the Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Texas Tech University and completed a fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine.