Sara Jo Nixon, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology

College of Medicine

2024 Awardee

Sara Jo Nixon is an internationally renowned clinical researcher in the field of substance use and misuse. She is director of UF’s Center for Addiction Research and Education and only the fourth UF College of Medicine faculty member to be named a distinguished professor, the highest faculty honor at UF.

Nixon has two main research goals: to identify the brain circuitry and processes most susceptible to alcohol’s neurotoxic effects and to uncover factors that could modulate risk and resiliency to substance misuse and its consequences. The overarching goal is to develop initiatives to prevent substance use disorders and improve treatment outcomes.

She started on this path as an undergraduate psychology student at Southwestern Oklahoma State University and went on to earn a doctorate in psychology from the University of Oklahoma. That was followed by a National institutes of Health-funded postdoctoral fellowship.

During her postdoctoral studies, Nixon had an opportunity to work with the late Oscar A. Parsons, a pioneer in neuropsychology and the biopsychology of alcoholism.

“It took me no time to realize this could be an exciting area of research,” she says. “Addiction science involves all aspects of cognitive science as well as psychosocial variables.”

She held faculty positions at three universities before joining UF in 2006. As an investigator, Nixon uses comprehensive behavioral assessments, brain electrophysiology, neuroimaging and clinical research interviews to reveal the complex nature of substance use and misuse.

Among her current NIH-funded studies: identifying predictors of alcohol initiation during early adolescence; environmental and individual-level influences of alcohol use in older age; and neural mechanisms of risk for alcohol use disorder among college student. In addition, she is co-principal investigator of the NIH-funded ABCD Study at UF, part of the largest long-term study of brain development and child health ever conducted in the U.S. Nixon has authored over 176 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and edited two books.

“There is great support for addiction science at UF,” she says. “Our center is a multi-college, multi-department endeavor. Departments and colleges see the value of having that kind of expertise in their departments. In addition to addiction science, we look at social drinking, the recreational use of cannabis and other domains that give us information relevant to policy, clinical practice and basic neuroscience. It’s a really exciting place to be.”