Stephen Ross, MD

I am a clinical professor of psychiatry and child & adolescent psychiatry at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, associate director of the NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine (CPM), and director of CPM’s research training program. I was first drawn to pursue addiction fellowship training at NYU Langone, inspired by the experience of members of my family and the mission of Bellevue Hospital. I have worked at NYU Langone over the past 25 years in a variety of leadership roles in clinical care, education, and research.

I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, and majoring in the biological basis of behavior. I received my medical degree from the UCLA School of Medicine, completed residency in general psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, and fellowship in addiction psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital.

I am a clinician at heart and went into medicine and psychiatry to take care of patients. I have been a practicing clinical psychiatrist for the past 25 years with a focus on addiction psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology. I have been involved in clinical leadership for most of my time at NYU Langone, including serving as unit chief of the Bellevue Dual Diagnosis Training Unit for five years, director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at Bellevue Hospital for 12 years, and director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital for seven years. I am currently an attending psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital and Tisch Hospital, as well as a member of the NYU Langone Face Transplant Program, providing psychiatric consultation.

I have been an educator for the entirety of my career, with a focus on teaching addiction psychiatry and medicine. I have taught a spectrum of trainees ranging from medical and dental students and general psychiatry residents to fellows undergoing specialized training in addiction, child and adolescent psychiatry, and forensics. I have been involved in educational leadership, including serving 17 years as associate director or director of the NYU Langone Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship. My teaching activities have been recognized internally at NYU Langone and externally, where I have received over a dozen teaching awards spanning a period from 2000 to 2024.

Beyond caring for patients, I am a physician-scientist conducting clinical research at NYU Grossman School of Medicine since 2006. My major research interests have centered on developing novel pharmacologic-psychosocial approaches to treating patients with addictive disorders such as alcohol and opiate use disorders, psychiatric and existential distress associated with advanced cancer, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), personality disorders, and chronic pain. My research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, foundations, and biotech. My focus, and associated publications on therapeutic applications of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP), has been internationally recognized, opening up a pathway for novel and breakthrough treatments of PAP for three of the most common and debilitating conditions in medicine: psychiatric and existential distress in advanced cancer or other serious medical illnesses, alcohol use disorder, and major depressive disorder.