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Dr. James McGaugh is a fellow and founding director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and research professor and founding chair of the department of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, Irvine. 

Dr. McGaugh did his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, his postdoctoral studies at the Istituto Superiore di Sanitá in Rome, Italy, and taught at the San Jose State University and the University of Oregon before becoming a founding faculty member of the University of California in 1964. 

Dr. McGaugh's research investigates neurobiological systems that regulate the formation of lasting memories. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a William James Fellow and past president of the Association for Psychological Science. 

Among his many awards for scientific contributions McGaugh has received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, the John P. McGovern Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Norman Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Experimental Psychologists and honorary doctorates of science (Laurea Honoris Causa) from the University of L'Aquila, Italy and Southern Illinois University. At UC Irvine he was awarded the UC Irvine Medal and the building McGaugh Hall is named in his honor.