Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis investigates individual differences in stress reactivity, recovery, and resilience. His research uses a variety of data types, including psychophysiological, genetic, clinical, self-report, and environmental measures. Through his work, Lewis seeks to inform public health and clinical interventions. His scholarly output includes publications in journals such as Translational Psychiatry, Psychophysiology, Brain Sciences, Psychology & Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology, and Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.   

Lewis earned his B.A. in philosophy from Penn State University, his M.P.H. with a specialization in health policy from George Washington University, and his M.S. in clinical psychology and Ph.D. in biological psychology from Virginia Tech. He completed postdoctoral work at McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School.

Research Interests

Michael Lewis continues to be interested in multimodal and translational approaches to study individual differences in stress, resilience, and recovery. A major focus of his current research program is studying psychological and neurobiological effects of interventions to increase resilience.

Selected Publications

• Google Scholar Profile
• Lewis, M. W., Bradford, D. E., Pace-Schott, E. F., Rauch, S. L., & Rosso, I. M. (2023). Multiverse analyses of fear acquisition and extinction retention in posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychophysiology, 60(7). https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14265
• Lewis, M. W., Jones, R. T., & Davis, M. T. (2020). Exploring the impact of trauma type and extent of exposure on posttraumatic alterations in 5-HT1A expression. Translational Psychiatry, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-00915-1
• Lewis, M.W., Webb, C.A., Kuhn, M., Akman, E., Jobson, S.A., & Rosso, I.M. (2023). Predicting Fear Extinction in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Brain Sciences, 13(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13081131
• Lewis, M. W., Bradford, D. E., Akman, E., Frederiks, K., Rauch, S. L., & Rosso, I. M. (2023). Unconditioned response to a naturally aversive stimulus is associated with sensitized defensive responding and self-reported fearful traits in a PTSD sample. Psychophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14473
• Lewis, M. W., Friedman, B. H., & Jones, R. T. (2021). Increases and decreases in fear potentiated startle during fear acquisition: A latent class growth analysis. Psychology & Neuroscience, 14(4), 396–412. https://doi.org/10.1037/pne0000266

Appointed to the Faculty

Educational Background

Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic and State University
M.S., Virginia Polytechnic and State University
B.A., The Pennsylvania State University