Robert Sapolsky

Robert Morris Sapolsky
Robert Sapolsky, nicknamed Subtlesky by students and friends (2009)
Born	1957 (age 59–60) Brooklyn, New York
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Neuroscience, neurobiology, biological anthropology, primatology
Institutions	Stanford University
Alma mater	Harvard University (B.A.) Rockefeller University (Ph.D.)
Thesis	The neuroendocrinology of stress and aging (1984)
Doctoral advisor	Bruce McEwen
Other academic advisors	Melvin Konner

Robert Morris Sapolsky (born 1957) is an American neuroendocrinologist and author. He is currently a professor of biology, and professor of neurology and neurological sciences and, by courtesy, neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In addition, he is a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

Sapolsky was born in Brooklyn, New York to immigrants from the Soviet Union. He was raised as an Orthodox Jew and spent his time reading about and imagining living with silverback gorillas. By age 12, he was writing fan letters to primatologists. He attended John Dewey High School and, by that time, he was reading textbooks on the subject and teaching himself Swahili.

Sapolsky describes himself as an atheist. He stated in his acceptance speech for the Emperor Has No Clothes Award, "I was raised in an Orthodox (Jewish) household, and I was raised devoutly religious up until around age 13 or so. In my adolescent years, one of the defining actions in my life was breaking away from all religious belief whatsoever."

In 1978, Sapolsky received his B.A. in biological anthropology summa cum laude from Harvard University. He then went to Kenya to study the social behaviors of baboons in the wild; after which he returned to New York; studying at Rockefeller University, where he received his Ph.D. in neuroendocrinology working in the lab of Bruce McEwen, a world-renowned endocrinologist.