8 Hutchison’s success began thanks to an OSU College of Arts and Sciences professor. Hutchison was a computer science major in 1986, but he took psychology courses and developed an interest in how people tick. Then-professor Frank Collins took him under his wing and let him research alcohol abuse. Collins’ field was clinical psychology, which merges science and clinical work to help people suffering from mental disorders. The subject fascinated Hutchison, and its clinical side appealed to his personality. “Because of that I ended up getting a position as a grad student working on research in smoking and alcohol. My doctoral work was in alcohol abuse, too. All of that was because of opportunities I had as an undergrad.” He finished his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees by 1995 and landed a prestigious post-doctoral position at Brown University in Providence, R.I. He credits OSU with giving him the early clinical background that helped him succeed. In 1998, he was hired at the University of Colorado, one of the nation’s leaders in addiction studies. In 2007, he moved to New Mexico and joined the Mind Research Network. He returned to the University of Colorado in 2011 but remains the network’s neurogenetics director and chief science officer. “In the next five years, hopefully, we should see more progress in terms of increasing treatments’ effectiveness,” he says. Hutchison has published articles in journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychopharmacology, Neuropsychopharmacology, Twin Research and Human Genetics, Addictive Behaviors and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. His wife, Angela Bryan, is also a psychologist at the University of Colorado and studies risky behavior. The two frequently collaborate on projects. Kent Hutchison wi th a group of Universi ty of Colorado students studying addict ion and the mind. Hutchison, a Col lege of Arts and Sciences alumnus, is a cl inical psychologist studying how drugs affect our brains. PHOTOGRAPH / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER. What is i t about some people that lets them qui t easi ly or never have the problem in the f i rst place, whi le other people develop the problem and never recover? — Kent Hutchison, addict ion special ist and cl inical psychologist The Mind Research Network is located in Albuquerque, N.M., where Arts and Sciences alumnus Kent Hutchison studies the connection between the brain and addiction. PHOTOGRAPH PROVIDED BY THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK.
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