Kent Harris

Dr. Kent Harris earned his PhD in psychology in March 1999 and became licensed in the State of California in April 2002. He has worked in several psychiatric hospitals in Southern California, including Huntington Memorial Hospital’s Della Martin Center. During this time Dr. Harris was exposed to research with Dr Brian Ross, MD, PhD, the director of the Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Unit at HMRI. Since 2003, he has held a part-time appointment performing modern MRI and MR spectroscopy brain imaging techniques and twice has been the recipient of the Young Investigator Award (2003, 2006) from NARSAD – The Mental Health Research Association. This funding enabled research that verified the alteration of glutamate neurotransmission in humans with schizophrenia.

Dr. Harris also has a talent in instrumentation that helped Senior Research Scientist Dr. Stefan Bluml PhD (now Director of MR Spectroscopy Unit at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles) and Dr. Ross achieve new MR spectroscopic techniques. These talents also proved indispensable in helping to setup the hyperpolarization studies now underway at HMRI.

These activities sparked Dr Harris’ interests in advancing his training in Neuropsychology and combining that knowledge with advanced magnetic resonance techniques. To that end he has pursued a certificate in Clinical Neuropsychology through the Fielding Graduate University.