Faculty

Portrait of Daniel Nation, PhD outside the USC Leonard Davis School

Daniel Nation, PhD

Professor of Gerontology and Medicine
Merle H. Bensinger Professorship in Gerontology

Expertise: Alzheimer's and dementia, Neuroscience, Brain aging

Education

  • 2011 – 2013, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, VA San Diego Healthcare System, Department of Psychology, Division of Neuropsychology
  • 2009 – 2011, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University of California San Diego, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
  • 2009, Pre-Doctoral Internship, University of California San Diego, VA Medical Center, San Diego, CA
  • 2009, PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
  • 2006, Master of Science, Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
  • 2001, BA, Psychology & Philosophy, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

Research

  • Elucidating vascular contributions to cognitive decline
  • Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
  • Developing biofluid and neuroimaging markers of cerebrovascular dysfunction and pathophysiological processes

Affiliations

  • Visiting Professor, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute

Overview

Daniel Nation, PhD, is Professor of Gerontology and Medicine and holds the Merle H. Bensinger Professorship in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He also has an appointment in the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. His research is focused on vascular risk factors and biomarkers of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, including markers of cerebrovascular dysfunction, blood-brain barrier breakdown, and endothelial progenitor cell depletion.

Nation received his doctorate in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami in 2009, where his dissertation work focused on the effect of oxytocin on atherosclerosis in apoE knockout mice. He went on to complete his clinical internship in Neuropsychology at the University of California San Diego (UCSD)/VA San Diego Healthcare System, and stayed in the UCSD/VA system for an NIH-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Biological Psychiatry and Neuroscience.

Email: danation@usc.edu


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