Instructor, Psychology, Portland State University, Instructor/Outreach Coordinator, Neuroscience, WSU Vancouver, Behavioral Neuroscience, OHSU; Co-founder of arts-integrated neuroscience outreach nonprofit nwnoggin.org; PhD, Behavioral Neuro, OHSU

Ram Kandasamy is a behavioral pharmacologist at Washington State University interested in the analgesic effects of opioids and cannabinoids. Ram has studied pain and analgesia for nearly a decade and has garnered state-level funding for his work on the pharmacology of pain therapeutics. He has published many peer-reviews publications on this topic and has presented his work on national and international stages. Ram’s current research examines the therapeutic effects of ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol against pain associated with primary headache disorders such as migraine. The goal of Ram’s research is to validate cannabinoid-based therapies for patients suffering from migraine, the most common neurological disorder in the world.

A California bay area native Jeff Leake holds a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from UC Davis. Fascinated with the origin and nature of our inner landscapes he currently works with neuroscience faculty at Washington State University Vancouver and Portland State University to teach art and neuroscience there and around the Portland area. He is also the co-founder and art coordinator of NW Noggin an art and neuroscience outreach group. As part of this he has been all over the country lecturing and teaching neuroscience through art including several lectures on art and drugs for Science On Tap, the Portland Art Museum, and the Washington State Psychological Association. Along the way he has shown nationally and internationally, he now lives and works in sunny Portland Oregon with his wife kids and three dogs.