Virginia Sturm, PhD, is the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation Endowed Professor at UCSF. She is a professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where she combines her expertise in clinical psychology and neuroscience to advance understanding of brain-behavior relationships. Dr. Sturm is also the director of the Clinical Affective Neuroscience (CAN) Laboratory, based at the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center and affiliated with the UCSF Center for Psychophysiology and Behavior.
Dr. Sturm completed her undergraduate studies at Georgetown University, followed by a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She went on to complete her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at UCSF, where she focuses on the neural systems underlying emotion and social behavior.
Through her research, Dr. Sturm examines the impact of neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders on emotional and social functioning. Her work aims to identify the brain mechanisms that drive these processes and explores how they change with disease progression. By bridging clinical insights with neuroscience research, Dr. Sturm aims to identify strategies that enhance the quality of life for patients and caregivers affected by these challenging conditions. Dr. Sturm is committed to advancing the field of affective neuroscience through multidisciplinary collaboration, rigorous research, and mentorship of the next generation of scientists.