Eric Wiertelak is the director of Macalester's Cognitive and Neuroscience
Studies program. A past-president of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (the
international organization devoted to neuroscience education and research at the
undergraduate level), he is a behavioral neuroscientist and conducts behavioral and
physiological research to investigate how environmental stressors and learning impact on
neurophysiological response mechanisms, such as pain modulation. The current focus of his
lab is the systematic investigation of the claimed psychoactive effects of natural
remedies and aromatherapeutic agents. This work is funded by the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
EDUCATION: B.A., University of Central Florida, 1989; M.A., University of Colorado, 1991;
Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, 1993.
Wiertelak has been teaching at Macalester since 1993.
