Nora D. Volkow, M.D., became Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in May 2003. Dr. Volkow’s work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a disease of the human brain. As a research psychiatrist and scientist, she has pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate the toxic effects and addictive properties of abusable drugs. Read more.
Director's Remarks and Interviews
Awards
- AWARDS AMA honors government service on addiction, infectious diseases (2020)
- Washingtonian magazine’s “100 Most Powerful Women” (2019)
- Presidential Award from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (2019)
- Georgetown University Medical Center selects Nora Volkow for Highest Honor (2018)
- Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University (2017)
- Washingtonian magazine’s “100 Most Powerful Women” (2017)
- 34 Leaders Who Are Changing Health Care” by Fortune (2017)
- Washingtonian magazine’s “100 Most Powerful Women” (2015)
- Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal (Sammies) finalist (2013)
- Child Mind Institute Distinguished Scientist Award (2013)
- Time magazine’s “Top 100 People Who Shape Our World” (2007)
Featured Article
![Illustration of human brain](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20201218032217im_/https://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/3-istock_20351358_xxlarge-web.jpg)
The brain disease model of addiction is strongly supported by scientific evidence, and stigma against people who use drugs can sabotage effective treatment, according to a perspective, Stigma and the Toll of Addiction, authored by NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.