Prof. Olson studied chemistry and biology at Union College before receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University. After his graduate work, he completed postdoctoral training in neuroscience at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Prof. Olson joined the faculty at UC Davis in 2015, where he established a research program at the interface of chemistry and neuroscience. His research focuses on understanding how small molecules influence neural plasticity, learning, memory, and mood. In 2019, he co-founded Delix Therapeutics—a company developing non-hallucinogenic analogs of psychedelics for treating a variety of brain disorders.