Julian Paul Keenan

Julian Paul Keenan (born December 8, 1969) is a  professor of Psychology and Biology at Montclair State University and director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory. He was previously at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Early life and education
Keenan was born on December 8, 1969, in New York City. He was educated at State University of New York at New Paltz, The Pennsylvania State University, Ealing College, The University at Albany, and Harvard Medical School between 1987 and 2001.

Career
Keenan joined the faculty at Montclair State University in 2001 where he established the Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory. He was eventually named one of the 20 most impactful intellects in New Jersey. According to the list, "There are a lot of bright people in New Jersey. After all, the state has been ranked among the top five smartest in the country for the past 10 years. But Inside Jersey wanted to find the brightest of the bright, people who are thinking the biggest thoughts and, in some cases, achieving unimaginable breakthroughs. We came up with 20 exceptional intellects who are changing the world from right here in the Garden State. Call it the N.J. Brainpower List."

He is the Founding Editor of the journal Social Neuroscience and has published his work in Science and Nature.

He discovered that the brain correlates of self-face recognition are mediated in the right hemisphere. His lab further determined the critical role the medial prefrontal cortex plays in deception and self-deception.

He was an early adopter of transcranial magnetic stimulation for use in cognitive neuroscience and continues to employ it in his current research.

His work has reached the public through major media outlets including Radio Lab https://radiolab.org/episodes/91496-who-am-i and Hulu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBKZ5rIQu28

In graduate school, Keenan established himself as an ardent supporter of equal rights in neuroscience with his very first publication discrediting The Bell Curve, a racial charged popular press book. His work in with Keith Whitfield, who is now the president of UNLV, while very brief, inspired Keenan to create the Erase Racism in Neuroscience project. This work has led to the first publication on how to effectively provide TMS in hair typified by minority populations.

Books
He has authored and edited numerous books including:


 * The Face in the Mirror (2004) ISBN 978-0060012809
 * The Lost Self (2005) ISBN 978-0195173413
 * ASVAB -The Best Test Prep (2005) ISBN 978-0738601083
 * Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience (2006) ISBN 978-0262162418
 * The Handbook of Research Methods in Health Psychology (2020) ISBN 978-1138595347
 * Self-Face Recognition and the Brain (2023)