An Introduction to Behavioral Endocrinology

RANDY J. NELSON holds the Brumbauch Chair in Brain Research and Teaching at The Ohio State University Medical Center, USA. He is professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and a member of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center. He also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology and Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at Ohio State University. Dr. Nelson earned his A.B. degree in Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, and began his graduate career with work on canine behavioral sex differentiation under Dr. Frank Beach. After receiving his M.A. in Psychology, he began focusing on circadian rhythms and photoperiodism with Dr. Irving Zucker. He earned a Ph.D. in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Endocrinology from the University of California at Berkeley, then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in reproductive physiology with Drs. Frank Bronson and Claude Desjardins at the Institute for Reproductive Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Nelson served on the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University for fifteen years before moving to Columbus. He has published over 300 research articles and several books describing studies in seasonality, behavioural endocrinology, biological rhythms, immune function, sex behaviour, and aggressive behaviours.