Imran Khan is Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). The BCSP exists to explore the potential of psychedelics through independent and rigorous research, training, and public education at one of the world’s foremost public universities.

Imran has spent most of his career working at the nexus of science & society. He was previously the CEO of the British Science Association, and ran grants programs for the Wellcome Trust - the world’s third-largest charitable foundation - as well as advising lawmakers in the UK Parliament. He has presented at events ranging from the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Economic Forum, to SXSW. His writing has appeared in the Financial Times, the Guardian newspaper, and BBC News.

Imran has degrees in biology and in science communication from the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, respectively, as well as an MBA from City University, London. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and enjoys trail-running, many forms of nerdery, and trying to cook the perfect daal.

Psychedelics in America

What Will people think? Revealing public knowledge, belief, and perceptions of psychedelics

As the psychedelic field experiences exponential growth, many of its goals will be directly affected in significant ways by what the general public knows and believes about psychedelic substances. But aside from narrowly focused opinion research tied to specific political efforts, the field has not had an evidence-based understanding of those public perceptions and knowledge. Until now. In this session, Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics executive director Imran Khan will present the findings of the inaugural Psychedelic Insight Poll, a national baseline survey that serves as the cornerstone of a multi-year opinion research program launched by BCSP in 2023 to provide the entire psychedelic community with data-driven insights into the general public's beliefs, hopes, fears, and questions about psychedelics and psychedelic therapies. The Psychedelic Insight Poll will be conducted annually to more fully understand public perceptions, track how those perceptions shift over time, and examine how current events, research discoveries, media and communications efforts, business strategies, and other activity in the field are influencing those shifts.