After obtaining an M.D. from Kyoto University in Japan and completing his clinical training in anesthesiology, Hitoshi Morikawa became interested in basic research. His graduate work focused on morphine and other opiates as analgesic drugs, more specifically on the cellular mechanism of tolerance after prolonged treatment with opiates. After obtaining a Ph.D. in 1999, Morikawa joined John Williams’ lab as a postdoctoral fellow at the Vollum Institute in Portland, Oregon, with a naive intention to define the brain circuit involved in the euphoric action of drugs of abuse.

Morikawa joined the faculty in the Department of Neuroscience and Waggoner Center for Alcohol & Addiction Research at The University of Texas at Austin in 2002. His current research focuses on synaptic plasticity and neuroadaptations that drive reward-based conditioning and the development of addictive behaviors.