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George Slavich

Born in: USA
Primary research category: Psychoneuroimmunology
Research location / employer: Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Fellowship dates: 2008-2013

Academic Career

  • Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, USA, 2015-Present
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, USA, 2010-2015
  • Research Scientist, Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, UCLA, USA, 2010-Present

———-

  • NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychoneuroimmunology, UCLA, USA
  • NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow, Health Psychology, UCSF, USA
  • Clinical Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, USA
  • Clinical Psychology Internship, McLean Hospital, USA
  • PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of Oregon, USA
  • MS, Clinical Psychology, University of Oregon, USA
  • MA, Communication, Stanford University, USA
  • MA, Psychology, Stanford University, USA
  • BA, Psychology, Stanford University, USA

Fellowship Research

Dr. George Slavich’s research integrates ideas and methods from psychology, neuroscience, immunology, molecular biology, genetics, and genomics to elucidate the full set of psychological and biological mechanisms linking stress with poor mental and physical health. He is particularly interested in the specific types of life stress that have deleterious consequences for health and how such stressors influence neural, immunologic, and genomic processes to increase risk for a variety of clinical outcomes, including depression, cancer, heart disease, and accelerated biological aging.

Major Contributions

Elucidated the neural systems underlying inflammatory reactivity to social stress.
Helped pioneer the now burgeoning field of human social genomics, which examines how adverse social experiences reshape the activity of the human genome.
Developed the first fully integrated, multi-level theory of depression, called Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression.
Developed the first online system for assessing lifetime stress exposure, called the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN).
Developed a new approach to classroom instruction, called transformational teaching.

Major Awards

  • Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology by an Early Career Professional Award, Society for Health Psychology, 2017
  • Herbert Weiner Early Career Award, American Psychosomatic Society, 2016
  • Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Early Career Research Award, Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, 2015
  • Theodore H. Blau Early Career Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Clinical Psychology, Society of Clinical Psychology and the American Psychological Foundation, 2012
  • Raymond D. Fowler Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Professional Development of Graduate Students, American Psychological Association, 2012
  • Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award, Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, 2011

Collaborative Projects with other Branco Weiss Fellows