Victoria Arango, Ph.D., was born in Colombia, South America. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 1982 from the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. In 1985, Dr. Arango joined the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at Cornell University Medical College where she pioneered anatomical and receptor binding studies in the brain of suicide victims. From 1989 to 1994, Dr. Arango continued her research at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh. In 1994 she moved to the Department of Psychiatry (New York State Psychiatric Institute) at Columbia University, where she is a Professor and the Associate Director of the Division of Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology. Dr. Arango's research has focused on examining brain receptor changes in adolescent and adult suicide victims and the effect of aging, mood disorders and alcohol dependence on those receptor systems. More recently, she has undertaken molecular, genetic and epigenetic studies as well as quantitative morphometric and neurogenesis studies. Dr. Arango’s pioneer work in human postmortem brain has been very influential in determining how such research is conducted. Dr. Arango’s work is truly translational, as she works closely with colleagues carrying out in vivo PET studies, in order to directly translate postmortem receptor findings into potential risk for suicide in clinical populations. Dr. Arango is very generous with her expertise, as she served on NIH study sections for 13 years, four of those years as Chair. Dr. Arango is well-funded by the NIH and other private foundations, has published extensively in respected national and international journals regarding the neurobiology of suicide and depression and she is often invited to lecture on the subject at national and international meetings.