Opening Dinner Honoring Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D.

Recorded June 21, 2023 at the Psychedelic Science Conference in Denver, Colorado. Attendees gathered to honor Roland R. Griffiths, PhD, Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. The evening included a three-course meal featuring speeches from the colleagues and allies who have worked with Dr. Griffiths across his illustrious and illuminating career. In 1999, building on a long career of pharmacological research, Dr. Griffiths opened a new era in psychedelic science with a series of groundbreaking studies examining the usage of psilocybin for spiritual and therapeutic purposes, yielding its first landmark publication in 2006. Over the last 16 years, Dr. Griffiths and his team have published over 144 peer-reviewed articles about psychedelics in respected scientific journals. This research has led to a widespread reconsideration of the potential of psychedelics in the fields of science and medicine, and inspired a new generation of researchers to follow in his footsteps. In 2020, Dr. Griffiths founded the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research with $17m in philanthropic funding, establishing the first permanent center for psychedelic research in North America. In 2022, Dr. Griffiths announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. He has recently begun to share his thoughts on mortality and his hope for the continued inquiry into the potential of psychedelics for spiritual growth, while continuing to write forthcoming scientific publications.