The Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research has announced the resignation of Board Member Dr. Michael McGuire.  Since joining the Board in April 1989, Dr. McGuire has been a guiding force for the research programs and interdisciplinary collaboration efforts of the Institute.  Dr. McGuire was a close friend and collaborator of Gruter Institute founder, Margaret Gruter.  They held many shared ideas related to the need to apply evolutionary models of human behavior and an understanding of neuroscience to the legal system, and even as a means of interpreting and forecasting social, political and economic events.  

Dr. McGuire is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry/Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles.  As a physician, psychiatrist and researcher, Dr. McGuire is noted for his contributions in the areas of ethology, evolutionary biology and central nervous system neurotransmitters.  Much of Dr. McGuire's publications have helped to expand the application of evolutionary biology principles to areas such as law, healthcare, psychiatry and human biology.

Included in Dr. McGuire’s primary interests are nonhuman primate behavior and brain physiology, stemming from the idea that they can serve as models for human behavior and human disorders.  He has spent considerable time abroad studying nonhuman primates in their natural settings. While less complex behaviorally, nonhuman primates generally are no less complex than humans are physiologically. Thus, they serve as excellent models for human physiology and often for behavior.

Throughout his research career, Dr. McGuire studied the physiology and the many functions of the neurotransmitter serotonin, particularly as it is affected by external information. Changes in the serotonin system influence significantly how one thinks and feels. Dr. McGuire has written (with co-author Roger D. Master and edited by Margaret Gruter) The Neurotransmitter Revolution: Serotonin, Social Behavior and the Law; (with co-author Alfonso Troisi of the University of Rome) Darwinian Psychiatry; and (with co-author William Anderson of Harvard University) Mirrors and Chains in The US Healthcare System, among other books and numerous papers.

Monika Gruter Cheney, currently President of the Board of the Gruter Institute, acknowledged that the “Gruter Institute has benefitted tremendously from the support and guidance of Michael McGuire for over 20 years.  Although he is stepping down from his formal role as Board member, the Institute will continue to consult with him on the various projects he initiated and supported over the years.  We wish Michael many more years of accomplishments and productivity.”