Dr. Barbara C. Banz is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine where she leads the Yale Developmental Neurocognitive Driving Simulation Research Center (DrivSim Lab). She earned her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Colorado State University. Dr. Banz completed a three-year T32 postdoctoral fellowship (NIAAA/NIDA) focused on addiction neuroscience in adolescents and young adults in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Banz’s graduate and early postdoctoral research was largely focused on using neurocognitive and neuropsychological testing, electrophysiology, and functional magnetic resonance imaging to build a neurocognitive profile of college-aged drinkers. In 2017, Dr. Banz joined the DEM and the Yale DrivSim Lab as a postdoctoral associate. As a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in youth alcohol use, her ongoing research is aimed to develop a profile of how alcohol and drug use during youth use translates to neurocognitive functioning and real-world implications among young drivers. In the Yale DrivSim Lab, Dr. Banz designs and builds high-fidelity driving simulation studies in order bridge cognitive neuroscience with real-world application. Through her multidisciplinary and translational research program within the Yale DrivSim Lab, Dr. Banz works to transform her novel empirical work to real-world meaningful impact; understanding the brain to save the lives of teens and young adults to they can thrive in early adulthood and beyond.