Dr. Yuval Neria is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology, and Director of Trauma and PTSD at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He received his BA degrees in Philosophy and Political Science and his MA degree in Clinical Psychology from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and his PhD in Psychology from Haifa University, Israel (1994). He was on faculty of Tel Aviv University until his recruitment to Columbia University after the 9/11 attacks (2002).
Dr. Neria’s research has been focused on the mental health consequences of exposure to extreme traumatic events, with a particular focus on war veterans and survivors of disasters and terrorism. Additionally, he has been involved in the development of novel treatment modalities for traumatized populations with PTSD. His scientific work has been inspired by his experience in combat. He was injured in the Yom Kippur 1973 War and was awarded the Medal of Valor, equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Dr. Neria has conducted large-scale studies among prisoners of war and war veterans, and led a number of research and training programs in New York City after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Currently his group at Columbia is focused on identification of biomarkers of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). By using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to identify brain circuits underlying posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Dr Neria’s lab aims to probe for the first time neural pathways of symptomatic improvement in response to PTSD treatment.
Neria’s research projects were funded by the NIMH, NARSAD and a number of private foundations. He has authored more than 100 articles and book chapters in the area of trauma and PTSD, edited three text books, including “9/11: mental health in the wake of terrorist attacks” (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and “The Mental Health Consequences of Disasters” (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and published a war-novel “Fire” (Zmora Bitan, Hebrew). He is the 2007 recipient of the Klerman NARSAD Award for outstanding Clinical Research, Honorable Mention.
