Dr. Atwood is an Associate Professor in the UW Division of Geriatrics and a Research Scientist at the Madison VA GRECC. He is Research Director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute (WAI) and the Wisconsin Comprehensive Memory Program (WCMP). He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia, and completed postdoctoral training in reproductive endocrinology at the NIH, and neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital. His early faculty appointment was as an Instructor of Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, followed by an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University prior to moving to UW-Madison. Dr. Atwood is a widely-acknowledged authority regarding the neuroendocrinology of aging and Alzheimer's disease. The research in his laboratory is based on a novel theory of aging (Reproductive-Cell Cycle Theory of Aging) that links reproductive hormone signaling to cell cycle dynamics that regulate our growth and development early in life, our reproductive function during adult life, and our senescent phenotype in late adult life. In essence, the theory explains why and how we age at the molecular, physiological and evolutionary levels.

Dr. Craigs Research focus on the basic investigations into developing strategies to maintain reproductive hormone balance so as to halt the aging process