Cameron Carter, Co-Director of the UC Davis Cannabis and Hemp Research Center
Carter is the founding director of the UC Davis Imaging Research Center. He has held the Endowed Professorship in Schizophrenia Research and has served as director of the Schizophrenia Research and Education Program since 2006. Carter was the director of the Center for Neuroscience from 2009 to 2016 and is now the director of the UC Davis Behavioral Health Center of Excellence. His clinical interests focus on the early diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia and other serious mental disorders. His research seeks to understand how risk factors affect brain development and the emergence of symptoms in serious mental disorders in order to improve outcomes in people affected by them. This includes examining the effects of cannabis in the brain in vulnerable individuals, including those at risk for or already experiencing the symptoms of serious mental illness.
Li Tian, Co-Director of the UC Davis Cannabis and Hemp Research Center
Tian is a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, affiliated with the UC Davis Foods for Health Initiative and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is also president of the Phytochemical Society of North America. Tian’s research focuses on how phytonutrients — natural chemicals with benefits for human health — are made and controlled in plants. Her lab also seeks to understand how phytonutrients aid in resistance to specific plant diseases. Tian previously isolated and characterized a key enzyme of the cannabinoid biosynthetic pathway and identified multiple candidate genes affecting D9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa. She is interested in understanding how the growth environment and management regime may affect the accumulation of phytochemicals in Cannabis sativa.