Neir Eshel is assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his A.B. from Princeton University, M.S. from University College London and M.D./Ph.D. from Harvard University. For his Ph.D. work with Naoshige Uchida, Eshel used optogenetics, electrophysiology and behavioral approaches to probe the neural circuit regulating dopamine release as mice learned about rewards. He then completed psychiatry residency at Stanford University, where he extended his interest in dopamine to study the role of this circuit in clinically relevant social behaviors, including aggression. Eshel plans to apply the tools of systems neuroscience to discover the key mechanisms underlying increased rates of aggressive behavior in people with autism spectrum disorders. He also maintains a clinical practice and hopes to translate his basic neuroscience findings into new treatment options for his patients.