James Austin has spent most of his years as an academic neurologist, first at the University of Oregon Medical School and later at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is currently Clinical Professor of Neurology at the University of Missouri-Columbia's Health Sciences Center. Included in Dr. Austin's cultural background was his first sabbatical spent in New Delhi, India; and the second spent in Kyoto, Japan, where he began Zen meditation training with an English-speaking Zen master, Kobori-Roshi, in 1974.

 He maintains a keen interest in the experimental designs and findings of investigators who study meditation, insight, and related states of consciousness. His early research background includes publications in the areas of clinical neurology, neuropathology, neurochemistry, and neuropharmacology. Dr. Austin is the author or co-author of more than 140 professional publications, including three MIT Press publications: Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness (1998); Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty (2003); and Zen-Brain Reflections: Reviewing Recent Development in Meditation and States of Consciousness (2006). His next book is entitled, Zen Brain, Selfless Insight: The Meditative Transformations of Consciousness (MIT Press, 2008).