Biography

Robert Bilder is the Tennenbaum Family Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Chief of Medical Psychology – Neuropsychology at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and Director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity. His research has focused on the links between brain and behavior, using tools spanning genetics, neuroimaging, cognitive and other assessments of human behavior.  He is particularly interested in studying dimensions of brain function to help eliminate artificial boundaries between mental illnesses, between health and disease, and between the brain mechanisms involved in exceptional and everyday creativity. Recently he has been engaged in research on the NIMH Research Domains Criteria initiative, with a focus on working memory processes. He also co-directs the MindWell pod within the Healthy Campus Initiative to concentrate on how we can support resilience, well-being and creative achievement at UCLA and beyond. Finally, Dr. Bilder has been studying the brain bases of creativity across species, and identifying brain and behavioral traits associated with exceptional or “Big C” creativity in humans.