Melissa Herman is associate professor of pharmacology and a member of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her lab studies the physiological and behavioral changes associated with alcohol and drug exposure and how neuroadaptations at the circuit, network and systems levels contribute to adverse clinical outcomes, including alcohol and substance use disorders, anxiety and depression.
Herman completed a B.S. in human physiology at Boston University and then worked as a research technician at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the lab of Catherine Rivier. She then joined the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at Georgetown University, where she earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience. After completing postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute in the lab of Marisa Roberto, Herman started her lab in 2016 at the University of Northa Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she enjoys patching on the rig and mentoring trainees in pharmacology and neuroscience.