Director – Michael A. Hoyt, Ph.D.

Michael Hoyt is the Chair & Professor of Population Health & Disease Prevention at UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, and Director of the Biobehavioral Shared Resource of UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCI Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR), and Behavioral Medicine Research Lab. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Arizona State University and his Master’s degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine-Emerson College program in Health Communication. He completed his clinical internship at the University of Washington, School of Medicine in behavioral medicine/neuropsychology and a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute of Mental Health at the University of California, Los Angeles in health psychology and psychoneuroimmunology.

His research is focused on biobehavioral processes associated with quality of life in those facing chronic illness. He conducts basic and clinical research to examine coping processes and other psychological factors associated with mental health, neuroendocrine and immune function, and adjustment to illness, with an emphasis on men and male-specific cancers.

Dr. Hoyt is the current Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine and is a past recipient of the New Investigator Award from the American Psychosocial Oncology Society in recognition of his research contributions to psycho-oncology. He has received competitive funding for his work including awards from the Livestrong Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, and the Department of Defense. His work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed scientific journals including Health Psychology, Cancer, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and Annals of Behavioral Medicine.