I was born in Denver, Colorado and grew up in Boulder. I have always been curious and have never been bashful about asking lots of questions. This was probably why people began telling me I should be a lawyer when I was about five years old. This advice stuck with me, and I went through my entire childhood thinking I would become a lawyer.
However, once I got to law school, I began having doubts about being an attorney. I am not adversarial and care more about the truth than winning an argument. After graduating, I worked for Latham & Watkins as an attorney and confirmed my suspicion about my mismatch with law. I did a lot of research, but the focus was on finding support for a desired outcome, which was unlike the research I did as an undergraduate, where what we discovered determined the outcome. The focus on obtaining outcomes favored by clients as opposed to the right outcomes sapped my belief in the value of my work. I also found myself alone in my office for hours on end each day craving human interaction. A friend, who was in medical school at the time, encouraged me to consider medicine.
My academic strengths have always been fields that usually have clear answers: math, physics, chemistry, engineering. Accordingly, when I started medical school I would have estimated the probability of pursuing psychiatry as close to zero. Although I had shadowed physicians extensively prior to medical school, I had no psychiatry experience. I had assumed that I would be ill-suited for psychiatry, but found the opposite to be true. I think people are fascinating and enjoy listening to patients explain what they think and the reasons for their actions. Helping patients improve their lives through psychotherapy and/or medications has been, and continues to be, extremely rewarding.
I love the ocean and ocean sports which was the main driver for me to attend law school in Malibu and medical school in San Diego. However, my wife and I decided to move back to Colorado after the birth of our daughter Violet to be closer to family.
RESIDENCY/INTERNSHIP
University of California San Diego Department of Psychiatry
Intern/Resident 2017-2021
Honors: Chairman’s Clinical Research Award 2021 (voted by faculty); Best Team Player Award 2018 (voted by resident peers)
EDUCATION
University of California San Diego School of Medicine
M.D. 2017
Honors: Gold Humanism Honor Society Member (nominated by peers, selected by faculty); MSTAR (Medical Student Training in Aging Research) Program grant; School of Medicine Scholarship
Senior Project: Website to teach patients about weight loss via nutrition: https://nosasdiet.com/
Pepperdine University School of Law
J.D. 2009
Honors: Valedictorian; Faculty Scholar; Law Review Associate Editor
Clinical: Worked in the Pepperdine Legal Aid Clinic that serves the homeless population of downtown Los Angeles and is housed in the Union Rescue Mission (one of the largest US homeless shelters in the US)
Mentoring: Participated in Pepperdine’s program for youth mentoring of high school students at Jordan High School in Watts (a high crime area of Los Angeles)
University of Colorado at Boulder
B.S., Chemical Engineering; Minor, Business 2006
Honors: Valedictorian, College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate for Research; Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Scholar; Colorado Engineering Council Certificate of Merit
PUBLICATIONS
S.N. Machiraju, J. Wyss, G. Light, D.L. Braff, K.S. Cadenhead, Novel N100 area reliably captures aberrant sensory processing and is associated with neurocognition in early psychosis, Schizophrenia Research, 271, 71-80 (2024)
J.C. Wyss, R. Carmona, R.A. Karunamuni, J. Pritz, C.K. Hoh, L.K. Mell, [18F]Fluoro-2-deoxy-2-d-glucose versus 3'-deoxy-3'-[18F]fluorothymidine for defining hematopoietically active pelvic bone marrow in gynecologic patients, Radiotherapy and Oncology, 118, 72-78 (2016) [Figure featured on cover].
J.C. Wyss, R. Carmona, R.A. Karunamuni, J. Pritz, C.K. Hoh, L.K. Mell, Comparison of F-18-FLT versus F-18-FDG-PET for Defining Hematopoietically Active Bone Marrow, International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, 93, S191-S192, meeting abstract 1085 (2015)
M. Yu, J.C. Wyss, R.D. Noble, J.L. Falconer, 2,2-Dimethylbutane Adsorption and Diffusion in MFI Zeolite, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 111, 24-31 (2008).
J.C. Wyss, J.G. Martinek, M.J. Kerins, J.K. Dahl, A.W. Weimer, A. Lewandowski, C. Bingham, Rapid Solar-thermal Decarbonization of Methane in a Fluid-wall Aerosol Flow Reactor – Fundamentals and Application, International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering, 5, A69 (2007).
T.C. Bowen, J.C. Wyss, R.D. Noble, J.L. Falconer, Measurements of Diffusion through a Zeolite Membrane using Isotopic-transient Pervaporation, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 71, 199-210 (2004).
T.C. Bowen, J.C. Wyss, R.D. Noble, J.L. Falconer, Inhibition during Multicomponent Diffusion through ZSM-5 Zeolite, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 43, 2598-2601 (2004).
T.C. Bowen, J.C. Wyss, M. Yu, J.L. Falconer, R.D. Noble, Diffusion Measurements during Pervaporation through a Zeolite Membrane, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Inorganic Membranes, eds. F.T. Akin and Y.S. Lin, Adams Press, Chicago 188-191 (2004).
R.A. Bartels, N.L. Wagner, M.D. Baertschy, J.C. Wyss, M.M. Murnane, H.C. Kapteyn, Phase-matching conditions for nonlinear frequency conversion by use of aligned molecular gases, Optics Letters, 28, 346-348 (2003).