Nadia Chaudhri

Nadia Chaudhri (January 25, 1978 – October 5, 2021) was a Pakistani-Canadian psychologist. She was a professor of psychology at Concordia University where she researched drug and alcohol abuse.

Early life and education Nadia Chaudhri was born on January 25, 1978, in Karachi, to Abdul Shakoor and Susan Mary Chaudhri. She was raised in Karachi. She moved to the United States at the age of 17 and attended Franklin & Marshall College for her bachelor's degree in biological foundations of behavior with a concentration in neuroscience studies. She graduated in 1999 with a 3.9 grade point average and the Williamson Medal as F&M's top senior. Chaudhri then received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship to complete her doctoral degree at the University of Pittsburgh. Her thesis was titled "Complex interactions between nicotine and nonpharmacological stimuli reveal a novel role for nicotine in reinforcement".

Career Chaudhri completed her post-doctoral training at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco. In this role, she found that the physical surroundings where alcohol cues are experienced can greatly influence the ability of those cues to trigger a relapse. Chaudhri eventually joined the Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology (CSBN) and the Department of Psychology at Concordia University in January 2010 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in June 2014. On September 9, 2021, she was promoted to Full Professor

At Concordia, Chaudhri’s research program has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, ABMRF/The Foundation for Alcohol Research, Fonds de recherche Santé Québec and Concordia University.

During her tenure at Concordia, Chaudhri and her laboratory associates studied the effect environmental cues can have on drug use. In her first year as an associate professor, Chaudhri won the inaugural Journal of Visualized Experiments JoVE video abstract contest after she showed Pavlovian-conditioned alcohol-seeking is mediated by dopamine. She was also named a Concordia University Research Fellow.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chaudhri underwent chemotherapy treatment for advanced ovarian cancer. She documented her last months with ovarian cancer on Twitter while raising funds to support students from underrepresented communities. She launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for travel awards to allow young scholars to participate in the annual meeting for the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Personal life Chaudhri and her husband had a son. Chaudhri died on October 5, 2021, more than a year after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.