Dr. Bickel joined the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute (formerly Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute) in 2011 and serves as Director of the Addiction Recovery Research Center and Co-Director of the Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors. He has appointments as professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech; professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine; and Virginia Tech Faculty of Health Sciences.  In recognition of his extraordinary contributions to research and scholarship achievements, Dr. Bickel was awarded the Virginia Tech Carilion Behavioral Health Research Endowed Professorship in 2016.
He received his Ph.D. in developmental and child psychology from the University of Kansas and completed post‑doctoral training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  Dr. Bickel then joined the faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he taught and led a research program. He next relocated to the University of Vermont where he became a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology and Interim-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry. While in Vermont, he contributed to the public debate about treating opioid-dependent individuals and was the Founding Director of the first methadone treatment program in the State of Vermont. Dr. Bickel’s next appointment was at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). While at UAMS, he held the Wilbur D. Mills Chair of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Prevention and was the Director of the Center for Addiction Research. He also served as Director of the College of Public Health’s Center for the Study of Tobacco Addiction and was the Associate Director of the Psychiatric Research Institute.
Dr. Bickel is an accomplished scholar and researcher whose accolades include being named a 2014 Fellow in the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research; the 2012 Brady-Schuster Award for Outstanding Behavioral Science Research in Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse, Division 28 of the American Psychological Association (APA); and the 2011 APA International Don Hake Translational Research Distinguished Contributions to Basic Research Award.  In 2012, he was selected by the APA Science Directorate and Board of Scientific Affairs as a Distinguished Scientist Lecturer. Dr. Bickel was honored to be the recipient of the 2016 Nathan B. Eddy Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). Additionally, he has received an NIH MERIT Award from NIDA and NIH has funded Dr. Bickel’s work continuously since 1987. 
 He has served as President of CPDD, President of APA Division 28 - Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse, and President of APA Division 50 - Society of Addiction Psychology.  Dr. Bickel was Editor of the journal, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, has co-edited five books, and has published over 400 papers and chapters. Dr. Bickel’s work is frequently cited and receives national and international recognition.