Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: Organizational Rank and Stress
Robert Sapolsky - John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and of Neurosurgery
Wednesday, 11 November 2009 - 7:30 AM Breakfast, 8:00 – 9:00 AM session
Session description
Science proves that stress is not just a state of mind, but something tangible and measurable. Over the last three decades, science has been advancing our understanding of stress - how it impacts our bodies and how our social standing can make us more or less susceptible.
This session will unexpectedly equip leaders to identify stressors and mitigate adverse effects of hierarchy, rank and authority within your organization.
World renowned for his studies on stress and human behavior, and recently featured in National Geographic's documentary "Stress: Portrait of A Killer", Professor Sapolsky delivers an incomparable session on the physiology of stress and human nature revealed by his lifelong research of African baboons and observations of fight or flight responses in zebras.
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Robert Sapolsky, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and of Neurosurgery
Robert Sapolsky is one of the leading neuroscientists in the world. He has been called "one of the best science writers of our time" by Oliver Sacks, and "one of the finest natural history writers around" by the New York Times.
He has focused his research on issues of stress and neuron degeneration, as well as on the possibilities of gene therapy strategies for help in protecting susceptible neurons from disease.
His research examines the physiological effects of stress and "explores what is, and is not, unique about humans". He has made annual trips to Africa for the last 23 years to study a population of wild baboons and the relationship between their personalities and patterns of stress related disease.
In his well-known book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases and Coping, Sapolsky examines how prolonged stress can cause or contribute to physical and mental afflictions. His lab was among the first to document that stress can damage the neurons of the hippocampus.
He is the author of A Primates Memoir: A Neuroscientists' Unconventional Life Among the Baboons, and in 2009 his research was featured in National Geographics documentary "Stress - Portrait of A Killer".
Professor Sapolsky's dedication, charisma and cutting-edge research has led him to receive numerous honors and awards for his work, including a MacArthur Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and the Klingenstein Fellowship in Neuroscience. He has received the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and a Young Investigator of the Year Award from the Society for Neuroscience, the Biological Psychiatry Society and the International Society for Psychoneuro-Endocrinology.
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