Carlton (Carl) K. Erickson, a research scientist, has been studying the effects of alcohol on the brain for over 25 years. Carl received his Ph.D. degree in pharmacology from Purdue University in 1965. He has held tenured teaching and research positions at The University of Kansas and The University of Texas since 1969. He presently is the Pfizer Centennial Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Addiction Science Research and Education Center in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA), the College for Prevention of Drug Dependence (CPDD), and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).

Carl is broadly knowledgeable about the alcoholism research literature, since he is an active scientist and Science Editor of the new Betty Ford Center newsletter, Findings. Publisher of over 150 scientific and professional articles, he is also co-editor of the book, Addiction Potential of Abused Drugs and Drug Classes (Haworth Press, 1990), and co-author of Your Brain on Drugs (Hazelden, 1996), and Drugs, The Brain and Behavior (Haworth Medical Press, 1998). He formerly wrote a regular commentary called “Voices of the Afflicted” for, and is now an Associate Editor of, the scientific journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. He has participated in the Professionals in Residence program at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, CA and is a recipient of the Betty Ford Center Visionary Award (2000). As a neuroscientist, Carl believes that alcoholism and other addictions are neurochemical disorders which present themselves clinically as different subtypes, each related to a different neurochemical pathology which produces the primary symptom of compulsive drug taking.