Damien Fair, PA-C, Ph.D.

Redleaf Endowed Director, Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain Professor, Institute of Child Development, College of Education and Human Development Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Medical School

Dr. Damien Fair is a Cognitive Neuroscientist and Professor in the Institute of Child Development and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. He is also the Redleaf Endowed Director of the Masonic Institute of the Developing Brain. Combining technical advances in functional MRI, advanced mathematics, and expertise in psychology and neuroscience, Fair has been able to demonstrate several basic principles of brain development and its relationships to typical and atypical behaviors. In 2012, he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers Issued by President Barack Obama and the White House. In 2020 he was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow. Fair is deeply committed to public service, community engagement, and STEM education. He has given several briefings to the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus and the American Brain Coalition on the intersection of brain development, policy making, and education. He aims to advance the intersection of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and brain health - widening the reach of those who are trained and ‘touched’ by the efforts.