Gary Berntson

Berntson is a past president of the Society for Psychophysiological Science, and is currently a fellow of that organization. He received the “Paul D MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine” from the American Psychosomatic Society (2013); and the "Society for Psychophysiological Research Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology" (2020). He has served as a Special Government Employee (SGE) Defense Science Board- Task Force on Predicting Violent Behavior (2010-2012). has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Committee on Social & Behavioral Sciences & National Security (2017-2020) and a member of the NIH blueprint committee on interoception (2019-2020).

Berntson studied biology and psychology at the University of Minnesota, and was awarded a Ph.D. (psychobiology and life sciences) in 1971. He then worked as a post-doc fellow with Neal Miller at Rockefeller University in the department of psychology between 1971 and 1973. Since 1973, Berntson is on the faculty at the Ohio State University.

Gary Berntson (born 1945) is an emeritus professor at Ohio State University with appointments in the departments of psychology, psychiatry and pediatrics. He is an expert in psychophysiology, neuroscience, biological psychology, and with his colleague John Cacioppo, a founding father of social neuroscience. His research attempts to elucidate the functional organization of brain mechanisms underlying behavioral and affective processes, with a special emphasis on social cognition.