Nikki Crowley

Dr. Crowley is the Director of the Penn State Neuroscience Institute at University Park, the Huck Early Career Chair in Neurobiology & Neural Engineering and an Assistant Professor of Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and Pharmacology at Penn State. Crowley’s research centers around understanding neuropeptides as unique signaling molecules in the brain, with an emphasis on the interactions between neuropeptides and neurotransmitters. Crowley is the recipient of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s Editors Early Career Award (2022), a Young Investigator Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and National Institutes of Health (2023), and The Whitaker Center’s Women of Impact: Woman to Watch Award (2023). Dr. Crowley joined the Department of Biology as an assistant professor in 2020. She is a Washington, DC native, forever east-coaster, and second-generation Penn Stater.