Michael Bardo, PhD

  • Associate Director for Basic Science

Dr. Bardo received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 1980 at Iowa State University under the supervision of Dr. Richard Hughes. His dissertation investigated the development of tolerance to morphine in infant rats. From 1980-82, he worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Iowa under the supervision of Dr. Gerald Gebhart. Since 1982, Dr. Bardo has been in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky. He has worked in the field of neuropsychopharmacology and drug abuse for over 35 years, having been funded continuously by NIH since 1981 and publishing over 200 research articles.  His research interests are investigating the neurobehavioral effects of environmental enrichment and social influences on drug self-administration.  Dr. Bardo is also interested in medication development for substance use disorders.  In addition to behavioral processes, his laboratory conducts work using chemogenetics, immunohistochemsitry, stereotaxic surgery and microdialyis with HPLC.