Tony Phillips

Anthony Phillips received his PhD in Biopsychology in 1970 from the University of Western Ontario and was a post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Biology at the California Institute of Technology.

Tony's first academic post was at the University of British Columbia, in the Department of Psychology, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 1980 and served as Head from 1994-1999. He was subsequently appointed Full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and, in July 2005, as Director of the UBC Institute of Mental Health.

Distinguished awards include: Canada Council Killam Senior Research Scholar, 1978-80; E.W.R. Steacie Fellow (NSERC), 1980-82. In 1986 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was also the recipient of an inaugural UBC Killam Research Prize. The Canadian Psychological Association honored him in 1995 with the Donald O. Hebb Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Science. In 1996 the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology named him co-recipient (with H.C. Fibiger) of its award for Innovations in Psychopharmacology.

Dr. Phillips' research interests are broadly based within the field of Systems Neuroscience and he is specifically interested in brain mechanisms of motivation, emotion, learning and memory, as keys to understanding complex behavior and cognition. He is especially interested in using the knowledge of normal brain-behavior function as a base from which to analyze the neural bases of mental illness and addiction.

Dr. Phillips also has played an important role in the evolution of the biotechnology industry in Canada, having been a Founding Director of QLT and serving as Secretary / Treasurer to its Board from 1982-92. He was also Founding Chairman of Stress Gen Biotechnologies, is a Founder and Member of the Board of Allon Therapeutics Inc., and is a Senior Partner in NDI Capital, a venture capital fund specializing in commercialization of discoveries in neuroscience.

In 2001, he was appointed Chair of the Advisory Board for the newly constituted CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction and was re-appointed to this position until 2007. He is also a founding member of Neuroscience Canada, a not for profit corporation that provides private support for neuroscience research.