For his work on nicotine addiction that clarifies human brain processes contributing to smoking and vaping which informs treatment and prevention strategies.

Matthew Sutherland is an Associate Professor of Psychology affiliated with FIU’s Center for Imaging Sciences and Center for Children and Families. Utilizing cognitive neuroscience techniques including functional MRI, Dr. Sutherland’s research program focuses on delineating brain and behavioral mechanisms that lead to and maintain substance use with an emphasis on nicotine and cannabis. His work interrogating human brain function has identified neurobiological aberrations among those using nicotine associated with reward processing alterations, working memory dysfunction, and affective dysregulation. Such neurobiological insights have implications not only for adult cigarette smokers, but also for adolescent e-cigarette use. Better understanding of the brain processes linked with substance use offers the potential to inform development of improved treatments for addiction, strategies to match people with the best treatment options, and efforts to prevent vulnerable individuals from initiating substance use. Dr. Sutherland’s research has been supported by multiple NIH grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Minority Health and Health disparities.