Adam Gazzaley is one of those rare people whose work doesn’t slot neatly into any single category, nor does he try to make it fit. A trained neurologist, accomplished scientist, creative technologist, and entrepreneur, he has spent his career charting new paths across fields that often don’t speak the same language. And yet, with Adam at the helm, the conversation flows. He moves fluidly between the lab, the boardroom, and the stage, never seeming out of place in any of them. This portrait was made in 2024 at his apartment, a quiet moment amid the rhythm of a life always moving forward.
Adam’s story begins with the brain. As a cognitive neuroscientist at UCSF, he launched one of the first programs to study how digital experiences, especially video games, can shape cognition. That idea, once fringe, has since evolved into a new model of medicine. He was among the first to ask whether custom-built digital tools could not just measure attention and memory, but actually improve them. That question led to the development of NeuroRacer, a game shown to enhance cognitive control in older adults, and to the founding of Akili Interactive, which went on to create EndeavorRx, the first FDA-approved video game to treat pediatric ADHD.
But for Adam, that milestone wasn’t the destination. It was more like a signpost, proof that science could move faster, reach more people, and do so with creativity. In the years since, he’s turned his attention to a broader vision of experiential medicine. Through his lab and his companies, he’s developed closed-loop systems that integrate neural monitoring and stimulation in real time, designed immersive VR environments for cognitive training, and explored how music, movement, and attention interact in the brain. His work blurs boundaries: between therapy and play, art and data, medicine and media.
Equally at home in a university seminar or a venture pitch meeting, Adam has built a bridge between academia and entrepreneurship that others now walk across. He’s mentored scientists who want to build companies, founders who want to think more like researchers, and investors who believe science and business can be partners in impact. Through it all, he remains deeply curious, not just about the brain, but about how ideas spread, and how technology can be designed to genuinely improve people’s lives.
What makes him compelling isn’t just the range of what he does, it’s the coherence of it. Whether he’s speaking on stage, advising a startup, or mentoring a student, he’s always circling the same set of questions: How do we change minds? How do we heal them? And what does it mean to thrive, not just survive, in the 21st century?
His influence is hard to quantify but easy to feel. He’s inspired a generation of young neuroscientists to think more boldly, more creatively. He’s shown investors that scientific rigor and human empathy can sit at the same table. And for many, he’s made the future of mental health feel less like a mystery and more like something we can design, together.
There’s also the side of Adam that doesn’t show up on paper: his warmth, his humor, the way he really listens. He’s a father, a musician, a photographer, and a restless learner. The kind of person who reminds you that science is, at its core, a profoundly human endeavor.
And when you step back from the CV, the startups, the breakthroughs, that’s maybe the most enduring thing, the way he invites people in. Into the science. Into the story. Into the possibility that things could be different. And better.
