Kevin Bickart received his degree in Psychobiology from Quinnipiac University (QU) in 2003. After teaching biology for a year at both an emotionally, socially, and behaviorally handicapped high school and QU, he matriculated at Boston University in the fall of 2004. Here has completed the first 2 years of medical school along with the USMLE Step 1 board examinations. After teaching English in China at Shanghai International Studies University for a 2-month summer course, Kevin has returned to the States to begin the PhD phase of the MD-PhD program.

In the department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Kevin will pursue the Vesalius track of doctoral training in which he will receive specialized, mentored training in Biomedical education and pedagogy. In parallel, has and will continue to develop an experimental model that focuses on the cognitive and neural correlates underlying expectancy-induced emotion regulation in response to stress, fear, or unpleasant affect and its clinical correlates to resilience. The findings from these experiments can be translated to the clinical arena where they may be used in the development of cognitive/behavioral therapies (CBT) for stress-induced psychopathology and anxiety reduction strategies for stress-related somatic illness. Implications regarding the doctor-patient relationship can also be drawn from the findings to develop an environment supporting hope, optimism, and positive expectancy to reduce the deleterious effects of anxiety in patients.

In the future, as a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and professor, Kevin plans to apply his multi- and interdisciplinary scientific and clinical knowledge to generate evidence supporting effective cognitive/behavioral therapies. These CBT's will be designed to enhance emotion regulation to modulate maladapted neural circuitry by promoting traits of resilience in participating patients. Such results will be achieved with psychoeducational modules that tap into and empower the patients' capacity to cognitively control their interpretation of stressful events. This type of training will not only serve as a therapy for individuals suffering from stress-induced psychopathology (mood/anxiety disorders) or stress-related somatic illness (hypertension, cardiovascular disease, etc ...) but also as a module for preventative care.