Dr. Robert Balster

Robert L. Balster, Ph.D.
Director, Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies
Virginia Commonwealth University
balster@vcu.edu

Dr. Balster is Director of the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Luther A. Butler Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia campus in Richmond.  He is the Coordinator for VCU site for the Humphrey Fellowship Program in Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Policy.   From 2011 to 2012 he will be spending a year at the State Department in Washington DC as Jefferson Science Fellow working on global science policy issues and then returning to VCU in August 2012.  Dr. Balster is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD), and the American Psychological Association.  He is a recent Past‑President of the CPDD and a former member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence (Dependence Liability Evaluation).  Previous appointments also include Chair of the Drug Abuse Clinical and Behavior Study Section at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Chair of the FDA Drug Abuse Advisory Committee, and Chair of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association.  From 1998-2010 he was Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence and currently serves on the editorial boards of five journals. 

In 2000, Dr. Balster received the first annual Mentorship Award of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence for his lifetime achievements in training and nurturing young drug abuse scientists in his laboratories. Other awards include the VCU School of Medicine Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (2003), the Excellence in Mentorship Award from the NIDA International Program (2006), the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science (2006), the Brady-Schuster Award from the Division of Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse of the American Psychological Association (2007) and the CPDD Nathan B. Eddy Award (2009).

The principal areas of Dr. Balster's research program are neurobehavioral pharmacology and substance abuse.  His primary interests are in phencyclidine, ketamine and inhalant abuse.  He has also worked in the areas of marijuana, opiate, tobacco and alcohol research. He also has extensive experience in drug abuse potential evaluation and in the drug approval process for psychiatric, neurologic and addiction treatment products. He has also worked in neurobehavioral toxicology.  Dr. Balster’s research program has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1976 and he has been the recipient of a NIDA MERIT Award.  Dr. Balster has published over 260 papers in scientific journals, edited two books and authored over 35 book chapters. He also has experience in the area of drug abuse policy and has testified before Congress and the Virginia General Assembly.  He served as the Public Policy Officer for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and on the Steering Committee for a CPDD-sponsored Fall 2002 meeting on regulatory aspects of drug abuse potential assessment which involved US regulatory agencies and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry.  He recently Co-Chaired the Planning Committee for a 2008 national meeting on the use of risk management and post-marketing surveillance in limiting prescription drug abuse.