Gwenn Smith

Dr. GWENN SMITH is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She also serves as the Director of the Johns Hopkins Division of Geriatric and Neuropsychiatry. She received her BA in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD in neuropsychology at the City University of New York. She completed post-doctoral training at the Aging and Dementia Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, New York University (NYU) and the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Program, Brookhaven National Laboratory. She was involved in the early development of neuroimaging biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease using PET and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

For the past twenty years, her research has focused on developing and applying novel neuroimaging methods to understand the neurochemical basis of Alzheimer’s disease and psychiatric disorders in late life and of the mechanisms underlying treatment response to medication and brain stimulation. These studies have focused on identifying the earliest neurochemical changes that are associated with the behavioral symptoms that precede memory impairment in Alzheimer’s disease that will inform development of more effective prevention and treatment strategies, as well as biomarkers of treatment response. She is actively involved in research training activities in geriatric mental health supported by the National Institute of Health. She is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP) and a founding member and past president of the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology (ICGP).