Michael L. Spezio, a social neuroscientist, is an assistant professor of psychology at Scripps College in Claremont, California, and a visiting faculty member in social, cognitive, and affective neuroscience in the Brain Imaging Center at the California Institute of Technology. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and formerly served as a chaplain at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, His research includes investigations of contemplative practice and moral action, using fMRI and other imaging techniques, as well as studies of the neuroscience of political decision-making, the neuroscience of virtue, and the neuroscience of autism. Dr. Spezio’s work has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) in Berkeley, Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University, the Mind and Life Institute, and the Caltech Brain Imaging Center. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University, he received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cornell University in 1994, a M.Div. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1996, and a second Ph.D. in cognitive systems neuroscience from the University of Oregon in 2002. He held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Davis, and at Caltech before being appointed to his current positions in 2007. Recipient of a CTNS science and religion course award and a national service research award from the NIMH, he is a former member of the board of advisors of the John Templeton Foundation. Dr. Spezio is the author of more than thirty papers published in scientific and scholarly journals or as chapters in volumes of collected works.
