Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., D.H.L. graduated from Queensland University with degrees in psychology, physiology, neuroscience, and medicine, and then came to Stanford University as a Fulbright Scholar. At Stanford he trained in psychiatry, passed licensing exams in medicine, psychology, and psychiatry, and then moved to the University of California at Irvine where he is currently professor of psychiatry, philosophy, anthropology, and religious studies.

Roger’s work centers on topics such as psychological health and human potentials, the practices such as meditation, contemplation, and yogas that foster them, the virtues such as ethics and wisdom that accompany them, and implications for our contemporary social issues. His more than 200 publications include books on neuroscience, psychological wellbeing, ecology, spiritual practice, meditation, and shamanism. Collectively, Roger’s writings and research have received over twenty national and international awards and honors, while his teaching has received one national and six university awards. In 2005 he was named the University of California at Irvine’s outstanding physician and in 2011 its Distinguished Writer.

In his other lives, Roger has been a practitioner, researcher, and teacher of contemplative practices for three decades. He was formerly a circus acrobat as well as a state champion and world record holder in high diving and trampolining. Recently, he graduated from the San Francisco Comedy College and tried his hand, rather unsuccessfully, at stand-up comedy.