Dr. Steven Laviolette is a Professor and Director of the Addiction Research Group in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario. His research focuses on identifying the neurobiological and developmental mechanisms underlying various psychiatric disorders, including opioid and nicotine addiction, depression, schizophrenia, PTSD and anxiety. Using both translational in vivo behavioural pharmacology and in vitro cell biology approaches, Dr. Laviolette’s laboratory has made many discoveries related to how the brain is influenced by chronic drug exposure during various phases of brain development including pre-natal and adolescent periods of maturation. His team also explores how signaling through the brain’s cannabinoid, dopamine and opioid systems can control emotional processing in specific brain circuits. Dr. Laviolette is the recipient of national and international research awards, including the C.I.H.R. New Investigator Award, an Early Researcher Award from the Province of Ontario, the Young Investigator Award from N.A.R.S.A.D, the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation and the Leader’s Opportunity Fund from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Dr. Laviolette currently serves on several Review Panels for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and serves on the research advisory board for Drug Free Kids Canada. He is a member of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran’s Health Research and previously served as Chair of the Review Committee for the Ontario Mental Health Foundation.