Dr. Albert Powers Named the 2026 Research Excellence Awardee
Dr. Albert Powers is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Yale University, Director of the Powers Laboratory at Yale, and Medical and Associate Director of the Yale PRIME Psychosis Risk Clinic. His research uses computational methods to elucidate the development of hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms.
Dr. Powers grew up in Northford, Connecticut and earned his BA in Cognitive Science from Yale in 2004. He completed his MD and PhD at Vanderbilt University, studying multisensory integration with Professor Mark Wallace, before returning to Yale for psychiatry residency in the research track, where he worked with Phil Corlett and Scott Woods, among others. He joined the faculty in 2018. Supported by the NIMH and private foundations, Dr. Powers's laboratory uses neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling to map psychosis development from early perceptual changes to full psychotic symptoms. Ongoing projects in the laboratory focus on capturing the neural dynamics that drive voluntary control over hallucinations as well as the basic pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the emergence of psychosis during the menopause transition. The Powers laboratory continues to engage in cross-disciplinary partnerships aimed at understanding hallucination emergence in dementia with Lewy bodies and in individuals at genetic high risk for psychosis. Dr. Powers also serves as Medical and Associate Director of the Yale PRIME Clinic Psychosis Risk Clinic, where he treats young people at clinical high risk for psychosis while engaging them in research meant to understand the latent states driving disease development.
