Robert Sapolsky holds the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professorship of Biological Sciences at Stanford University, where he is also professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery. His laboratory focuses on the  mechanisms by which stress and stress hormones can damage the brain and on the development of gene therapy strategies to save neurons from neurological insults.

In addition, Professor Sapolsky has spent his summers since the late 1970s studying a population of wild baboons in East Africa, examining what social rank, personality, and patterns of sociality have to do with vulnerability to stress-related diseases.

Professor Sapolsky writes regularly for nonscientists in such publications as Scientific American, Discover, Natural History, and The New Yorker.

He is also the author of five books, including four nontechnical publications for the general public: Why Zebras Don’t  Get Ulcers: A Guide to Stress,  Stress-Related Diseases and Coping,   3rd edition (2004, Henry Holt); The Trouble with Testosterone and Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament (Scribner, 1997);  A Primate’s Memoir (Scribner, 2001); and Monkeyluv and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals (Scribner, 2005).

Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality  by Professor Robert Sapolsky -2nd Edition  pdf