Jud Brewer, MD PhD

Jud Brewer, MD, PhD, known as Dr. Jud, is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author who works on habit change and what he calls the "science of self-mastery." He blends over 20 years of mindfulness training with a career in scientific research, with the aim of helping people make deep, lasting change and reducing suffering in the world.

He is director of research and innovation at Brown University's Mindfulness Center, and a professor in Behavioral and Social Sciences at the School of Public Health and in Psychiatry at the School of Medicine. Earlier he held research and teaching positions at Yale University and the University of Massachusetts' Center for Mindfulness, and was a research affiliate at MIT. His lab has used fMRI and EEG neurofeedback to study the neural mechanisms of mindfulness, including the brain's Default Mode Network and the posterior cingulate cortex's role in self-referential thinking. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association, among others.

Dr. Jud has developed and tested mindfulness programs for anxiety, emotional eating and smoking, delivered in person and through the apps Unwinding Anxiety, Eat Right Now and Craving to Quit. He co-founded MindSciences, Inc. to bring these programs to a wider audience. Sharecare acquired it in 2020. He also co-founded Mindshift Recovery, a nonprofit supporting people with addiction, and works directly with people with anxiety through his Going Beyond Anxiety program. His approach invites people to meet habits with kindness and curiosity.

He is the author of The Craving Mind, the best-seller Unwinding Anxiety, and The Hunger Habit. His TED talk, "A simple way to break a bad habit," has been viewed more than 20 million times, and his work has appeared on 60 Minutes, The New York Times, TIME and elsewhere. He has trained US Olympic athletes and coaches, foreign government ministers and corporate leaders, and speaks regularly on how modern science meets ancient meditative practice. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Mahri, where they enjoy biking, hiking and meditating.