J. Landeira-Fernandez holds a Psychology Degree from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio, 1985), Master’s in Experimental Psychology from São Paulo University (1988), and PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles (1993). Since 1994, he has been a Professor in the Psychology Department at PUC-Rio, where he teaches at both the postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

He has published over 200 articles and book chapters in a wide range of fields, from animal models of anxiety disorders to human developmental neuroscience. He was a Brazilian Book Award finalist for a book on movies and psychopathology. He is a former President of the National Association of Research and Graduate Education in Psychology, founding President of the Brazilian Institute of Neuropsychology and Behavior, and founding Editor of the journal Psychology & Neuroscience.

He is currently the Chair of the Psychology Department at PUC-Rio, member of the Brazilian Psychological Society Board of Directors (2014-2019), and organizing committee President of the International Congress of Psychology, Rio 2024.