UCI MIND faculty member, Craig Stark, PhD was recently quoted in Science Magazine discussing the critical role scientists play in helping improve society.
The article focuses on a push to better understand the science behind addiction, and how scientists are spreading evidence-based treatment knowledge through regional and national seminars.
By regularly hosting seminars to gather scientific and legal experts, researchers can better inform the criminal justice system on how to improve substance abuse recovery rates in the incarcerated population.
Dr. Stark, a neurobiologist who specializes in brain imaging at UCI, has presented at dozens of these legal seminars, speaking on faulty testimony, recollections, and how drugs disrupt the brain’s ability to process memory.
Dr. Stark ended the article with this critical call to action:
“Our job as researchers is to try to understand the world around us. In isolation, that’s great, but if you actually have something that you can do to try to make society better, you really owe it to yourself and to society to do that. If it can help our system be fairer—punish the people who should be and not punish the people who shouldn’t—yeah, I’m going to do it.”
If you’d like to hear more about Dr. Stark’s work, join him live this Friday, August 2nd on UCI MIND’s Facebook page for open Q&A about brain imaging and Alzheimer’s disease.
