SEEC People

As Chair and Distinguished Professor of the UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences, William Mobley is building new models to increase collaboration through multidisciplinary research groups. He has a distinguished record of academic achievement and is considered one of the most outstanding academic neurologists in the country.

While at Stanford University, Dr. Mobley moderated a discussion between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and leading scientists that was the impetus behind the Center for Compassion and Altruism, which he co-directed.

Dr. Mobley earned his Ph.D. from Stanford in Neuro- & Behavioral Science in 1974, and an M.D. from the same institution in 1976. After completing his M.D., Dr. Mobley completed an internship in pathology in 1977, also at Stanford University. He then went on to complete a residency and fellowship in neurology and pediatric neurology at The Johns Hopkins University in 1982. While there he was selected to serve as Chief Resident in Pediatric Neurology from 1981 to 1982. In 1983, he became certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and in 1987 was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with Special Competence in Child Neurology.

He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. He collaborated with the Dalai Lama to create the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. He also serves as the expert advisor to the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus (for which he won the Christian Pueschel Memorial Award in 2007).

He is the recipient of both the Zenith Award and the Temple Award from the Alzheimer's Association and was chosen to receive the Cotzias Award of the American Academy of Neurology in 2004. Dr. Mobley is Past President of the Association of University Professors of Neurology, of the Professors of Child Neurology, and of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and in 2006 was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 2011 Dr. Mobley was honored with the International Sisley-Jérôme Lejeune Prize in Paris by the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation for his contributions to the field of Down syndrome and genetic intellectual disabilities. This led to his recognition by U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions on the floor of the House of Representatives. Read more.

See his publications.

Martin Paulus studied Medicine at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 1979-1985.  He received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) in 1986 to study the effects of calcium antagonists on animal models of mania at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). 

In 1993, Dr. Paulus left UCSD to resume his medical training and completed his internship at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center / Zucker Hillside Hospital on Long Island, NY.  In 1994, he rejoined the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD as a psychiatric resident.  Dr. Paulus completed his residency in psychiatry in 1997.  At that time, he joined the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD as an Assistant Professor.  He also became a staff psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health Care System (VASDHS). Dr. Paulus is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD and the Associate Chief of Psychiatry at VASDHS.  Dr. Paulus is also the Director of the Center for Telemental Health at the VASDHS. 

Dr Paulus is the Director of Optibrain, the “Center Optimizing Performance By Understanding the Brain”.  The basic goals of the Optibrain Consortium are to integrate knowledge between the University of California San Diego, the Naval Health Research Center, and the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences. 

Selected Publications

1. Simmons AN, Fitzpatrick S, Strigo IA, Potterat EG, Johnson DC, Matthews SC, Van Orden KF, Swain JL, Paulus MP (2012): Altered insula activation in anticipation of changing emotional states: neural mechanisms underlying cognitive flexibility in special operations forces personnel. Neuroreport.

2. Paulus MP, Flagan T, Simmons AN, Gillis K, Kotturi S, Thom N, Johnson DC, Van Orden KF, Davenport PW, Swain JL (2012): Subjecting elite athletes to inspiratory breathing load reveals behavioral and neural signatures of optimal performers in extreme environments. PLoS One. 7:e29394.

3. Paulus MP, Simmons AN, Potterat EG, Van Orden KF, Swain JL (2010): Systems Neuroscience approaches to measure brain mechanisms underlying resilience - towards optimizing performance. In: Kornguth S, Steinberg R, Matthews MD, editors. Neurocognitive and Physiological Factors During High-Tempo Operations: Ashgate, pp 133-145.

4. Paulus MP, Simmons AN, Fitzpatrick SN, Potterat EG, Van Orden KF, Bauman J, Swain JL (2010): Differential brain activation to angry faces by elite warfighters: neural processing evidence for enhanced threat detection. PLoSOne. 5:e10096.

5. Paulus MP, Potterat EG, Taylor MK, Van Orden KF, Bauman J, Momen N, Padilla GA, Swain JL (2009): A neuroscience approach to optimizing brain resources for human performance in extreme environments. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 33:1080-1088.

6. Paulus MP (2007): Decision-making dysfunctions in psychiatry--altered homeostatic processing? Science. 318:602-606.