Timothy Shahan

Dr. Shahan received his Ph.D. in Psychology from West Virginia University in 1998. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vermont, and then a Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire until 2003 when he accepted a position at Utah State University—where he is presently a Professor of Psychology. He was the recipient of the 2006 B.F. Skinner Young Researcher Award and the 2023 Distinguished Contribution to Basic Behavior Analysis Award, both from Division 25 of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Shahan’s research focuses on fundamental processes in learning, adaptation, and behavioral regulation with an emphasis on development, testing, and translation of quantitative theories of behavior. His research uses animal models to examine how reinforcement and reinforcement-related stimuli contribute to attention, decision-making, persistence, and relapse. For more than 20 years, his research has been supported by various institutes at NIH, including NIMH, NIAAA, NIDA, and NICHD. Moving beyond touting potential implications of his basic research for human health, about 10 years ago Dr. Shahan started collaborating with clinical scientists to directly translate his research to the clinic. Specifically, this work uses insights derived from his basic research to reduce the severe problem behavior of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Dr. Shahan is a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, he has served as president of the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior, and as chair of the Biobehavioral Regulation, Learning, and Ethology study section at NIH. In his spare time, he likes to ski, travel, and spend time with his family.