John Brick, PhD, has specialized in alcohol and drug studies for more than twenty-five years, and is an internationally recognized expert on the interactions between physiology, pharmacology and behavior. As Executive Director of Intoxikon International, Dr. Brick is responsible for the development of training programs and the contents of all educational materials. He chairs the Executive Advisory Board.
Dr. Brick began his research career in alcohol and psychopharmacology in the Department of Physiological Psychology, Rockefeller University in New York. His first peer-reviewed research paper was published before entering graduate school. As a graduate of the doctoral program in Biological Psychology at Binghamton University, The State University of New York, he received training in both neuroscience and psychology.
Dr. Brick's research career and teaching focuses on the relationship between neuropharmacology and behavior. Due to his expertise in multiple disciplines, Dr. Brick has worked as an expert consultant in both clinical behavioral sciences and the biological neurosciences to numerous federal agencies, including the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy. He currently holds an appointment as a Biological Psychologist and Psychopharmacology Consultant with the Rockland County Medical Examiner’s Office. Dr. Brick has been in private practice in forensic psychopharmacology for twenty years and is the author of over 100 scientific publications on the biobehavioral effects of alcohol and other drugs. Among these, he is co-author of the President’s Commission on Model State Drug Laws (The White House). Dr. Brick’s two most recent textbooks are Drugs, The Brain and Behavior: The Pharmacology of Abuse and Dependence and Handbook of the Medical Consequences of Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Haworth Medical Press).
Internationally, Dr. Brick has been active in the field of alcohol and drug studies since 1983, when he co-organized and chaired the First International Symposium on Alcohol and Stress. In 1990, he was one of only six American scientists invited to visit and deliver an address to the Russian National Academy of Medicine on the occasion of their Centenary Anniversary. Dr. Brick was the only American scientist working in the field of alcohol studies to receive this distinct honor. In 1992, he co-organized and chaired the International Conference on Alcohol and Aggression. In the fall of 2002, Dr. Brick was a member the World Health Organization’s first medical education initiative to provide addiction training to physicians in China (Beijing Medical University).
Dr. Brick was a member of the research faculty at the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies for fourteen years as well as a member of the graduate faculty. He has held visiting faculty appointments at DuPont Pharma and Peking University Institute on Mental Health/International Center for Health Concerns. During his tenure at Rutgers University, he held several key positions at the Center of Alcohol Studies including: Chief of Research, Education and Training Division, Associate Director of the Rutgers University Advanced School of Alcohol and Drug Studies, and Associate Director of the Rutgers School of Alcohol Studies, the oldest and most well known international alcohol studies training institute in the world. Dr. Brick was Chairman of the graduate programs for both the Biology of Alcohol and Foundations in Alcohol Studies at the Center of Alcohol Studies for nine years, and taught courses in Neuropharmacology at Rutgers University, and elsewhere, for twenty years. Dr. Brick worked as a Forensic Alcohol/Drug Consultant to the Rutgers University and to the Rutgers Police Department for approximately fifteen years (1992-2007) providing education, training and forensic support to the university on issues related to alcohol and drug abuse. Dr. Brick was twice promoted to Fellow by the Ameican Psychological Association; first in 1991 then again in 2007. The latter Fellow award was in recognition of the national impact of his work in the field of psychopharmacology.
