John Walsh

Associate Professor of Gerontology
Director of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology

John Walsh, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Gerontology and a member of the Neuroscience Program at USC. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from the University of California, Irvine, and was awarded a Ph.D. in physiology and biomedical sciences from the University of Texas School of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Walsh's research focuses on the electrophysiological analysis of brain areas that are targets of age related disease. Studies on aging, calcium, free radical physiology, synaptic plasticity and responses to physiological challenge are performed on the dopaminergic neurons lost in Parkinson's disease, the striatal neurons lost in Huntington's disease.

His research also examines how toxic environmental challenges affect nerve cell populations typically lost in Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Walsh spends his free time surfing in southern Orange County and he also serves as the faculty advisor for USC's Surf Team Club and the Delta Gamma Sorority.