mark thomas phd

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Training the next generation of Neuroscientists

• Graduate Program in Neuroscience

Mark Thomas, Ph.D.

E-mail: [email protected], lab web page : http://markthomaslab.com/, research interests:.

A fundamental question in neuroscience is how the structure and function of the brain is modified by experience. One compelling model of experience-dependent plasticity is behavioral sensitization-a long-lasting increase in the locomotor stimulatory effects of drugs of abuse following repeated exposure. Behavioral sensitization is also a prominent model for the intensification of drug craving that occurs in human addicts. My laboratory seeks to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie this form of plasticity, as well as the genetic factors that may predispose an individual to sensitization. We are currently studying two cellular correlates of drug-induced plasticity, long-term depression at glutamatergic synapses in the nucleus accumbens-a key site of action of drugs of abuse in the brain-and the increases in the length of dendrites and the density of dendritic spines that also occur in accumbens neurons. We are using several complementary approaches to determine the relationship that each of these correlates has with behavioral sensitization and with each other: behavioral studies to determine the consequences of drug exposure, the use of transgenic and knockout mice, analysis of dendritic morphology via several staining methods and whole-cell recordings in brain slices to investigate synaptic function. These studies will provide insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms of an important form of experience-dependent plasticity that may hold some of the clues to drug addiction.

Selected Publications :

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications , refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

• Eisinger KRT, Chapp AD, Swanson SP, Tam D, Lopresti NM, Larson EB, Thomas MJ , Lanier LM, Mermelstein PG. Caveolin-1 regulates medium spiny neuron structural and functional plasticity. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2020 Sep;237(9):2673-2684.
• Corkrum M, Covelo A, Lines J, Bellocchio L, Pisansky M, Loke K, Quintana R, Rothwell PE, Lujan R, Marsicano G, Martin ED. Thomas MJ , Kofuji P, Araque A. Dopamine-evoked synaptic regulation in the nucleus accumbens requires astrocyte activity. Neuron 2020;105(6):1036-1047.
• Corkrum M, Rothwell PE, Thomas MJ , Kofuji P, Araque A. Opioid-mediated astrocyte-neuron signaling in the nucleus accumbens. Cells. 2019 Jun 14;8(6):586.
• Benneyworth MA, Hearing MC, Asp AJ, Madayag A, Ingebretson AE, Schmidt CE, Silvis KA, Larson EB, Ebner SR, Thomas MJ . Synaptic depotentiation and mGluR5 activity in the nucleus accumbens drive cocaine-primed reinstatement of place preference. J Neurosci. 2019;39(24):4785-4796.
• Sweis BM, Thomas MJ , Redish AD. Beyond simple test of value: measuring addiction as a heterogeneous disease of computation-specific valuation processes. Learn. Mem. 2018;25:510-512.
• Sweis BM, Abram SV, Schmidt BJ, Seeland KD, MacDonald, AW III, Thomas MJ , Redish AD. Sensitivity to "sunk costs" in mice, rats, and humans. Science 2018;361:178-181.
• Sweis BM, Redish AD, Thomas MJ . Prolonged abstinence from cocaine or morphine disrupts separable valuations during decision conflict. Nat Commun. 2018 Jun 28;9(1):2521.
• Sweis BM, Thomas MJ , Redish AD. Mice learn to regret. PLoS Biol. 2018;16(6):e2005853.
• Sweis BM, Larson EB, Redish AD, Thomas MJ . Altering gain of the infralimbic-to-accumbens shell circuit alters economically dissociable decision-making algorithms. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Jul 3;115(27):E6347-E6355.
• Ebner SR, Larson EB, Hearing MC, Ingebretson AE, Thomas MJ . Extinction and reinstatement of cocaine-seeking in self-administering mice is associated with Bidirectional AMPAR-mediated plasticity in the nucleus accumbens shell. Neuroscience. 2018 Jun 7;384:340-349.
• Hearing M, Graziane N, Dong Y, Thomas MJ . Opioid and Psychostimulant Plasticity: Targeting Overlap in Nucleus Accumbens Glutamate Signaling. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2018 Mar;39(3):276-294. 
• Ingebretson AE, Hearing MC, Huffington ED, Thomas MJ . Endogenous dopamine and endocannabinoid signaling mediate cocaine-induced reversal of AMPAR synaptic potentiation in the nucleus accumbens shell. Neuropharmacology. 2018 Mar 15;131:154-165. 
• Tonn Eisinger KR, Larson EB, Boulware MI, Thomas MJ , Mermelstein PG. Membrane estrogen receptor signaling impacts the reward circuitry of the female brain to influence motivated behaviors. Steroids. 2018 May;133:53-59. 
• Ingebretson A, Hearing MC, Huffington ED, Thomas MJ . Endogenous dopamine and endocannabinoid signaling mediate cocaine-induced reversal of AMPAR synaptic potentiation in the nucleus accumbens shell. Neuropharmacology. 2018;131:154-165.
• Hearing M, Graziane N, Dong Y, Thomas MJ . Opioid and psychostimulant plasticity: Targeting overlap in nucleus accumbens glutamate signaling. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2018 Jan 12. pii: S0165-6147(17)30242-0.
• Ingebretson AE, Hearing MC, Huffington ED, Thomas MJ . Endogenous dopamine and endocannabinoid signaling mediate cocaine-induced reversal of AMPAR synaptic potentiation in the nucleus accumbens shell. Neuropharmacology. 2017;131:154-165.
• Tonn Eisinger KR, Larson EB, Boulware MI, Thomas MJ , Mermelstein PG. Membrane estrogen receptor signaling impacts the reward circuitry of the female brain to influence motivated behaviors. Steroids. 2017 Nov 28. pii: S0039-128X(17)30224-6.
• Hearing MC, Jedynak J, Ebner SR, Ingebretson A, Asp AJ, Fischer RA, Schmidt C, Larson EB, Thomas MJ . Reversal of morphine-induced cell-type-specific synaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens shell blocks reinstatement. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016;113:757-62.
• Jedynak J, Hearing M, Ingebretson A, Ebner SR, Kelly M, Fischer RA, Kourrich SJ, Thomas MJ . Cocaine and amphetamine induce overlapping but distinct patterns of AMPAR plasticity in nucleus accumbens medium spiny neurons. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2016;41:464-76.
• Wydeven N, Marron Fernandez de Velasco E, Du Y, Benneyworth MA, Hearing MC, Fischer RA, Thomas MJ , Weaver CD, Wickman K. Mechanisms underlying the activation of G-protein-gated inwardly rectifying K+ (GIRK) channels by the novel anxiolytic drug, ML297. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014;111(29):10755-60.
• Smith LN, Jedynak JP, Fontenot MR, Hale CF, Dietz KC, Taniguchi M, Thomas FS, Zirlin BC, Birnbaum SG, Huber KM, Thomas MJ , Cowan CW. Fragile X mental retardation protein regulates synaptic and behavioral plasticity to repeated cocaine administration. Neuron. 2014;82:645-58.

Current Graduate Students:

Megan Brickner (Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Nolan Trevino (Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Former Graduate Students:

Brian Sweis (Ph.D. 2017, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Anna Ingebretson (Ph.D. 2017, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Rachel Penrod (Ph.D. 2012, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Patrick Rothwell (Ph.D. 2010, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

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Mark Thomas, PhD

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Medical School Bio

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Mark J. Thomas, Ph.D.

Dr. Mark Thomas, Ph.D. is a professor of neuroscience and Director of the University of Minnesota’s Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, a research team of 60 faculty funded by the state legislature to fuel cross-disciplinary collaborative research to discover new effective biology-based treatments for Substance Use Disorders.

Dr. Thomas received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from UCLA in 1998, and completed postdoctoral training in Psychiatry at Stanford and Psychology at the University of Michigan before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2003. His research examines how addictive drugs alter the brain and how these brain changes can lead to compulsive drug use.  His lab is now focusing on ways to disrupt addiction relapse.

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Mark Thomas, Ph.D.

Mark Thomas Bio

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Where Discovery Creates Hope

Medical school.

A monthly series:

Using science, not willpower, to conquer a real life – and death – brain disease.

Addiction needs no introduction. We all know somebody who struggles with a beguiling lifelong attraction to the very substance that is their undoing.

Introducing, in a word, hope: The University of Minnesota’s Medical Discovery Team on Addiction. It’s a passionate group of researchers from different disciplines armed with newfound knowledge about the brain’s central role in addiction and the technology to push that understanding even further.

Ultimately, they joined forces to discover new solutions, if not an outright cure, for a disease that not only destroys the lives of people who suffer from it, but friends and family caught in the freefall.

Says Dr. Jakub Tolar, dean of the University of Minnesota’s Medical School: “What excites me is not just having the players, but having them as a team, benefiting from each other’s experiences and training.”

Mark Thomas, PhD

Professor Department of Neuroscience

“If there’s a trigger that gets tripped, why can’t we trip it back?”

It’s only been within the last several decades that addiction has even been recognized as a disease.

Before that, it was considered a moral problem, a stigma that still prevents people from seeking help.

But after decades in the lab, Dr. Mark Thomas, a professor of neuroscience, can assure you of this: Repeated use of drugs definitely causes discernable changes in the brain. What’s more, even in recovery that rewiring continues. The question he hopes the U’s Brain Imaging Center helps him answer is whether it’s possible to make repairs.

“By understanding brain activity patterns underlying things like intense cravings, we have the opportunity to target them with tools like neurostimulation.”

Marco Pravetoni, PhD

Associate Professor Department of Pharmacology

“I made my first vaccine against oxycodone in 2009.”

No wonder the lab of Dr. Marco Pravetoni, an associate professor of pharmacology and medicine, has transitioned from discovery to clinical evaluation of vaccines against opioids.

Almost 12 years ago, he developed a first of its kind vaccine targeting oxycodone that, among other uses, can provide a measure of protection for people in danger of relapse.

Drugs of abuse, he explains, are normally too small for the immune system to recognize. So he and his team modify them, attaching larger immunogenic carriers that make them large enough to be “seen.” The antibodies generated in response prevent the drugs from reaching the brain, which reduces the high and toxic effects.

Pravetoni says: “We’re hoping that within the next decade we’ll reach the pharmacy shelf.”

Sade Spencer, PhD

Assistant Professor Department of Pharmacology

“I’m the most molecular person on the team.”

It’s addiction’s most heart wrenching experience: That ever present danger of relapse, even after years of recovery, says Dr. Sade Spencer, an assistant professor in the pharmacology department.

Her work, in the lab, studies tiny, but powerful, neurons and the circuits they form that are altered by the abuse of drugs. That “sometimes enduring” rewiring produces a programmed response to a cue, like bumping into old friends, that triggers people to use again.

Spencer says: “There’s hope that we can utilize viral tools like drugs to turn on or off specific circuits and have an impact on relapse in that way.”

Mustafa al’Absi, PhD

Professor Department of Family Medicine and BioBehavioral Health

“Even identical twins have different risk factors.”

It’s one of addiction’s most pressing questions: Why me?

The answer lies somewhere in the beauty of humanity and its diversity – that we’re all individuals, says Dr. Mustafa al’Absi, a professor of family medicine and biobehavioral health at the U’s Medical School Duluth campus.

Things like our genetics, upbringing, life experiences and stress – which all have influence on brain chemistry – are part of a complicated cocktail that can lead us to addiction and keep us in the vicious cycle of relapse.

Which, he adds, makes the Team’s work that much more compelling: “We’re all working on the same problem, from multiple points of view. We’re getting closer and closer to finding effective means that work with different individuals.”

Dr. Jakub Tolar

Dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School

No wonder the legislature charged its Land Grant Medical School with solving addiction, says Dr. Jakub Tolar.

The “disease of despair” is partly to blame for a life expectancy rate that, for the first time since World War I, declined.

“If we don’t do something, we’ll leave it to our children to deal with."

M Health Fairview – Mental Health and Substance Abuse:

• Mental Health and Substance Abuse | MHealth.org
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Boots on the Ground: A Call to Action! Friday, 12/4/2020, virtual conference:

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Mark Thomas

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Mark Thomas

deep learning for bioacoustics & AI for social good

mark [dot] thomas @ dal [dot] ca

I am a PhD candidate in computer science @ Dalhousie University under the supervision of Stan Matwin . My main interests are in applying deep learning to the area of bioacoustics. Specifically, I work on algorithms for detecting endangered baleen whale vocalizations in acoustic recordings.

I hold a MSc and BSc from Acadia University. During my MSc, I was supervised by Pritam Ranjan and Holger Teismann and worked on Bayesian optimization for ecology models.

I am also the co-founder of Dartmouth Runners , a free social running club in the heart of the Darkside . Check us out and join us for a run!

Starting in June, I will be joining X (formally Google X) for a four month PhD Residency in AI.

M. Thomas , B. Martin, and S. Matwin, (2021) Improving the performance of a passive acoustic monitoring classification system through semi-supervised deep learning. Special Issue on Machine Learning, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA)

A. Theissler, M. Thomas , M. Burch, F. Gerschner (2021) ConfusionVis: Comparative evaluation and selection of multi-class classifiers based on confusion matrices Knowledge-Based Systems

I recently presented my work using semi-supervised learning to leverage unlabeled PAM data at the ICLR 2021 workshop titled: "From Shallow to Deep: Overcoming Limited and Adverse Data".

Recent Publications:

M. Thomas , B. Martin, and S. Matwin. (2021) Leveraging unlabelled data through semi-supervised learning to improve the performance of a marine mammal classification system From Shallow to Deep: Overcoming Limited and Adverse Data Workshop at International Confernence on Learning Representations (ICLR).

M. Thomas , B. Martin, K. Kowarski, B. Gaudet, and S. Matwin. (2019) Detecting endangered baleen whales within acoustic recordings using region-based convolutional neural networks. Joint Workshop on AI for Social Good at Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS). [paper] [poster] -->

PhD: Computer Science, Dalhousie University (exp. 2022)

MSc: Mathematics & Statistics, Acadia University

BSc: Mathematics & Statistics and Economics, Acadia University

Work Experience:

Intern Machine Learning Scientist @ JASCO Applied Sciences (Jan 2018 - Present)

Data Scientist @ Fix.com (May 2015 - Aug 2017)

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‘I don’t know what to say’: Family of Thomas Matthew Crooks struggles to make sense of Trump shooting

Exclusive: “i don’t know what to say,” mark crooks, the would-be assassin’s uncle, told the independent, article bookmarked.

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As questions swirl about the would-be assassin who shot former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday, the shooter’s family is also struggling to make sense of what happened .

The FBI identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who lived with his parents in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park. Crooks, who was perched on a nearby rooftop, was shot dead by the Secret Service shortly after bloodying Trump’s ear with a round investigators believe came from an AR-15 assault-style rifle found at the scene.

Reached by phone on Sunday morning, Crooks’ uncle, Mark Crooks, said he was inundated with calls following his nephew’s attempt on Trump’s life , which was, “of course,” a tremendous shock, he told The Independent. He said he had “no idea” what might have motivated the shooting, and is just trying to process the news.

“I don’t know what to say,” he conceded.

The 68-year-old lives in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles from Crooks’ hometown of Bethel Park, but said he hadn’t had any contact with Crooks “in years.”

“I haven’t seen the kid since he was little,” Mark Crooks said. “He never wanted to bother [with maintaining a relationship], so we don’t see him.”

Crooks’ parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks, née Frizzi, are certified behavioral health counselors, according to state licensing records. Neither responded on Sunday to multiple requests for comment from The Independent .

In a brief call with CNN on Saturday night , Matthew Crooks, 53, said he was attempting to figure out “what the hell is going on,” and that he needed to “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before saying anything further.

According to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, Crooks squeezed off “multiple shots” before agents “neutralized” him. One rally attendee was killed, and two others were critically injured, Guglielmi said. Crooks was not an attendee at the rally, according to authorities.

Follow our live blog for updates on the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump

Crooks, who was clad in gray camouflage, had explosives in his car, according to unidentified law enforcement officials cited by The Wall Street Journal .

The assault rifle police recovered from Crooks’ position atop of a manufacturing plant just north of the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, where Trump was speaking to a crowd of supporters, had been purchased legally by Crooks’ father, sources told ABC News .

When law enforcement searched Crooks’ body, they found he had no ID on him, FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek of the bureau’s Pittsburgh Field Office said at a press conference on Saturday night. A DNA analysis was then performed, which confirmed his identity, Rojek said.

Trump was taken to a local hospital and released, then flew to New Jersey on his private jet, surrounded by heavily armed Secret Service agents.

“When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change,” former First Lady Melania Trump said in a statement issued early Sunday. “I am grateful to the brave secret service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their lives to protect my husband.”

After the attempt on Trump’s life, President Biden said, “There’s no place in America for this type of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick.”

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La Salle University

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Mark A. Thomas, Ph.D.

I am a La Salle alumnus and greatly enjoy mentoring students in my areas of expertise. While teaching is a part-time profession, it is a full-time vocation and I consider it a privilege to work with aspiring government professionals and academics. My past research dealt with the foreign policies of the countries of Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia and the other Soviet successor states. As the Global War on Terrorism unfolded, my research interests moved toward the role of the Supreme Court in influencing the course of National Security Law.

Areas of Expertise

• Counterterrorism/Counterespionage
• US Intelligence Policy and Foreign Intelligence Operations
• Cyber Defense Policy
• Russia/Ukraine
• NATO and NATO Member-States
• US Foreign and Defense Policies
• Radicalization and Political Violence
• Law of Armed Conflict and Human Rights Law
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• M.A., Ph.D. Political Science, University of Notre Dame
• MBA, American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird)
• BA, La Salle University
• Certificate in Legislative Studies, Georgetown University
• U.S. Government
• International Relations; Globalization
• Decision-making
• U.S. Foreign Policy
• Political Thought/Theory
• Political Analysis

Research and Publications

• “The 2024 US Presidential Election and US Foreign Policy Toward Ukraine: Complex Modeling of US Foreign Policy.” Ukrainian Quarterly , Fall 2023.
• “The Geneva Conventions and Russian Atrocities in Ukraine: War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity or Genocide.” Ukrainian Quarterly , Spring 2023.
• “The Chinese Roots of Hybrid Warfare”. Europe’s Edge . Center for European Policy Analysis, “What the Public Needs to See and Say: Easier Guide to Early Detection of Armed Assailants.” Cogent Social Science Journal , May 2020.
• “Smart Intelligence: From Joint to Coalition Intelligence Collaboration.” Military Intelligence Professional Review . April-June 2013.
• Publications: “Lenin, Hitler and Stalin.” Ukrainian Quarterly, April 2010 (Book Review) “Cyber Espionage: What’s the Big Deal?” National Intelligence Journal, Vol 1., Number 1, (2009) (with Jeffrey Jones). “Soviet Intelligence Operations and the Legacy of John Paul II,” At the Crossroads of Cultures. Albert Kipa and Oleg Kupchinsky, eds., Philadelphia: St Sophia Press, 2008. “The United Nations at 40 Years.” (Book Review) Military Intelligence Professional Journal. Jan-Feb 1996.
• Presentations: “The Niagara Movement’s Legacy in Brown vs Board of Education: A Case-Study on The Impact of Social Movements on the Supreme Court, National Conference Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Niagara Movement, Harpers Ferry WV, August 2006 “Soviet Intelligence Operations against John Paul II,” International Conference on John Paul II and Ukraine, Philadelphia PA, June 2005. “Modeling Political Risk for Multinational Corporations,” Co-authored with Llewellyn Howell, International Political Science Association, Las Vegas NV, May 1994. “The Development of Relations Between the European Communities and Comecon, Indiana Political Science Association, Indianapolis IN, May 1992.
• Current Research Interests: Comparative Legislative and High Court Counterbalances to Executive Branch Initiatives During the Global War on Terrorism, Alliance Politics in the 21 st Century, Central European Energy Policies, Developments in National Security Law and Cyber Policy.

Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas, PhD is Associate Dean for International Graduate Programmes at Grenoble EM.

He holds a PhD from Lancaster University, UK looking at temporal adaptation and speed in the change process during mergers and acquisitions. His thesis offers a micro-foundation, behavioural perspective on strategic change management. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School and is a highly active member of the Harvard Alumnus Network.

He has published more than 40 peer review articles, monographs and book chapters and has presented his research at some of the world’s top academic conferences (EGOS, EURAM etc.) His research focuses on a variety of strategic management issues most notably M&As, strategic alliances, strategic change management and leadership.

His research has been published in academic journals such as the World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing, Strategic Direction, the Journal of Strategic Management Education, the International Leadership Journal and Development and Learning in Organisations. He has also written for the Financial Times, The Economist, Les Echos etc. He serves on several Editorial Advisory Boards.

He has worked in higher education in France for the past 20 years as professor, course director, director of business school programs and director of international affairs. He has worked extensively on a variety of international projects in some 30 different countries signed more than 80 international partnerships. Notable agreements with the universities of Cambridge, Columbia, Duke and McGill. He has also created and managed off-site campuses in China, the USA, the UK and Canada as well as establishing major alliance networks for international recruitment in higher education.

He has taught Corporate Strategy, Strategic Management and Leadership at Executive Education, Masters and Undergraduate level. He has worked extensively with senior executives particularly in the high tech, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and aviation industries. He has had visiting professorship at the University of Cambridge, UK, the University of Maryland, USA, Tongji Business School & Beihang University, China.

He has more than 15 years’ experience of working for national and international higher education accreditation organisations (AACSB, EFMD, CEFDG etc.). He currently serves on the EFMD Programme Accreditation Board and has been accreditation peer review member and chair for more than 10 years. He is accreditation mentor for both EFMD and AACSB and is the former Chair of the Associate Deans Affinity Group at AACSB. He has audited and assisted more than 30 business schools across the world in their accreditation processes.

He has also participated in international advisory groups for the French Ministry of Higher Education and worked for the regional council of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region. He is the former President of the International Commission for the Alliance of the 40+ Grandes Ecoles of the region (AGERA) and currently serves as treasurer for this same organisation.

• –present Associate Dean & Director of International Affairs at Grenoble Ecole de Management // Specialties: Strategic alliances both from a conceptual and practical, profit generating level. Leadership across stakeholder boundaries; creative problem solving; AACSB, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)
• 2013  Harvard Business School, Advanced Management Program (Finance; Strategy; Marketing; Management; Leadership; International Economics)
• Grenoble, France
• @MarkThomas1966
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• Joined May 14, 2019

• Faculty of Environment
• School of Earth and Environment

Dr Mark Thomas

• Position: Lecturer
• Areas of expertise: engineering geology; hazards; volcanology; numerical modelling
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +44(0)113 343 5233
• Location: 7.11 Priestley Building
• Website: LinkedIn | ORCID

Background:

MESci Degree in Geology and Geophysics from University of Liverpool, UK.

PhD in Numerical modelling on "Geomechanics of volcanic instability and the effects of internal pore fluid pressurisation", worked on identifying and classifying the geomechanical properties of volcanic products and the effect of elevated fluid pressures on the stability of volcanic flanks.

Industry employment within the engineering geology and geophysics sectors involving the collection and processing of gravity, seismic, resistivity, electromagnetic, GPR and magnetic data, in addition to the FE and FD modelling of engineering problems.

Has been in Leeds since February 2009.

The overarching goal of my research is to better understand volcanic processes and to put “numbers” to the physical properties of volcanic materials required to do this in order ot better understand volcanic activity and hazard/risk. I arrived at Leeds in 2009 working within the Volcanic Studies Group studying the generation and evolution of low-frequency volcano-seismic events. In 2014 I became a Lecturer in engineering geology at the university, having previously worked for Thyssen Geotechnical (Now Quantum Geotechnical) as an engineering geologist and STATS (Now part of the RSK group) as a geophysical engineer.

Current research areas include improving the understanding of how volcanic domes grow and collapse, investigating if we are able to predict collapse events; better characterizing the mechanical properties of volcanic materials (with particular refrance ot tephra and its effects on structures) and exploring the causes of large-scale volcanic flank collapse and tsunami generation.

I work within the Volcanic Studies Group and the Rock Mehanics Engineering Geology and Hydrology Group and I am currently part of the Frontiers Community as a Review Editor in Volcanology for the Frontiers in Earth Scince journal

• MESci (Hons) Geology and Geophysics, University of Liverpool (2002)
• PhD Geomechanics of Volcano Instability and the Effect of Internally Elevated Pore Fluid (Gas) Pressures, Kingston University (2007)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Responsibilities

• Programme Leader for MSc Geotechnical Engineering Degree Apprenticeship
• Faculty Digital Education Academic Lead (Environment)

Research interests

Research topics within the volcanology/planetary exploration groups:.

Conduit Flow Modelling

Trigger mechanisms of low-frequency volcano-seismic events

Dome growth and instability

Large scale volcanic flank instability

Planetary volcanism

Research topics within the Rock Mechanics Enginering Geology and Hydrogeology group:

Geomechanical classification of volcanic products

Behaviour of rocks at high temperatures and pressures

The use of rock mass classification schemes

• Roof loading from tephra deposition

Qualifications

• PhD Volcanic Instability, Kingston University
• MESci, Geology and Geophysics, University of Liverpool

Student education

I teach across a range of subjects and undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the Schools of Earth and Environment and Civil Engineering. I am also involved in student education management through my roles as the programme leader for the MSc Geotechnical Engineering Degree Apprenticeship, and as the Faculty of Environment Digital Education Academic Lead.

Research groups and institutes

• Institute of Applied Geoscience
• Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics
• Planetary Exploration
• Applied Geophysics
• Rock mechanics, Engineering geology and hydrogeology
• Volcanology

Current postgraduate researchers

• Claire Orlov
• Stephanie Shahrzad
• Amanda Norman

Publications:

My five most recent selected publications, my other selected publications, journal articles, conference papers, presentation (conference/workshop etc), conference presentations, internet publications, performances, compositions, exhibitions, scholarly editions, software / code, thesis / dissertations, working papers.

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Mark Harris

Website:  https://people.uwm.edu/mtharris/

PhD, Johns Hopkins University MS, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research Interests

My research projects focus on the sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of carbonate rocks. My most recent projects are collaborative studies with Peter Sheehan (Milwaukee Public Museum) of Upper Ordovician-Lower Silurian facies, sequences and communities of the Great Basin and Estonia. We are currently developing a project to look at the sedimentological and paleontological changes in the east Baltic Middle Ordovician-Lower Silurian section as Baltica moved from sub-polar to tropic settings. This interval is of particular interest because it includes the Great Ordovician Radiation, the end Ordovician extinctions, and the Early Silurian recovery. Peter and I are working with Leo Ainsaar (Tartu University), Linda Hints, Olle Hints, Jaak Nõlvak (Institute of Geology, Tallinn Technical University), Andri Dronov (Moscow State University), and Seth Finnegan (University of California) on this project. Last summer, Seth and I traveled to Estonia to meet with our colleagues to examine outcrops and cores to understand the basic stratigraphy and facies relations (and plan our grant submission).

Teaching Areas

Sedimentology, History of Geology

Selected Publications

Medical Discovery Team on Addiction

Medical School

• Clinical Trials
• Thank your Legislator
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• Center for Neural Circuits in Addiction

Mark Thomas, PhD Director

612-624-4963 [email protected]

Dr. Thomas is a Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction. His research examines how addictive drugs alter the brain and how these changes can lead to compulsive drug use. His lab is now focusing on ways to disrupt addiction relapse.

Arif Hamid, PhD Assistant Professor ★ Newly Hired

[email protected]

Dr. Hamid is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Studies in the Hamid DiRE-Lab are directed at understanding the neurobiology of brain decision-circuits (particularly the neurotransmitter Dopamine and Cortico-BasalGanglia-Thalamic  pathway) that promote reward learning, and the planning and execution of desired goals. Abnormalities in these decision circuits produce neurological, psychiatric, and substance abuse disorders, so work in the lab aims to provide mechanistic and computational insights into how (mal)adaptive behaviors leverage specializations in the underlying circuitry.

Lauren Slosky, PhD Assistant Professor★ Newly Hired

612-301-7231 [email protected]

Dr. Slosky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. Her work is focused on understanding how neuropeptide G protein-coupled receptors regulate reward, pain, and motivated behavior and how these receptors can be targeted for therapeutic benefit. Bridging molecular and behavioral pharmacology, her lab integrates biochemical, behavioral, and neuroimaging approaches in genetically engineered mice, with the goal of developing safe and effective treatments for cocaine, methamphetamine, and opioid use disorders.

Sarah Heilbronner, PhD Associate Professor

Dr. Heilbronner is an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine.  Dr. Heilbronner co-leads the SCC with Dr. Mermelstein and with assistance from the director of the University of Minnesota's Imaging Center, Dr. Mark Sanders, and the Associate Director of the UMN Informatics Institute, Dr. Thomas Pengo.

Alexander Herman, MD, PhD Assistant Professor

612-625-1194 [email protected]

Dr. Herman is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Herman's human neuroscience lab studies neural mechanisms of decision making that are impaired in addiction and amenable to treatment with neuromodulation. His lab combines invasive and non-invasive methods including intracranial electrophysiology, direct brain stimulation, magnetoencephalography and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Anna Zilverstand, PhD Assistant Professor

612-626-6020 [email protected]

Dr. Zilverstand is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. Her work is focused on investigating how individual differences contribute to human drug addiction. Her research group combines the analysis of existing large-scale multimodal data sets with the acquisition of new data through a variety of techniques such as interviewing, neurocognitive testing, questionnaires and multi-modal neuroimaging. Novel computational methods are employed for linking social, demographic, neurocognitive, personality and clinical measures to the neuroimaging data, to explore the existence of neurobiological subtypes within the addicted population. The goal of this research is to develop neuroscience-derived individualized treatment for individuals who are at risk for either escalation of drug use or relapse. 

Jan Zimmermann, PhD Associate Professor

612-625-5539 [email protected]

Dr. Zimmermann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. His lab studies how the brain represents and constructs subjective value and how that signal is used to guide decision making. The lab is particularly interested in how the brain adaptively changes its coding strategy to encode statistical regularities within a changing environment. Using electrophysiology, ultra high field MRI and computational modeling the lab tries to understand how changes in reward encoding sensitivity could relate to a propensity for drug addiction.

Alik Widge, MD, PhD Assistant Professor

612-625-7594 [email protected]

Dr. Widge is a psychiatrist and biomedical engineer. Clinically, he provides brain stimulation treatments for mood, anxiety, and substance disorders. These include deep brain stimulation, cortical stimulation, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. His research focuses on developing these treatments further, particularly the creation of new "closed loop" devices. These devices sense brain signals in real-time and deliver energy in a planned and rational fashion, compensating for each patient's specific brain network abnormalities. Dr. Widge's laboratory prototypes new stimulation paradigms and targets in rodent models, conducts clinical trials of these new technologies, and searches for biomarkers of illness and recovery to guide next-generation therapies.

Jocelyn Richard, PhD Assistant Professor

612-626-3872 [email protected]

Dr. Richard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience, investigating how external cues interact with stress and negative emotional states to drive drug and alcohol seeking, even after long periods of abstinence. By measuring the activity of neurons critical for normal reward seeking, Dr. Richard can predict how intensely rats will seek out rewards like alcohol when they are exposed to environmental cues that have been previously associated with these rewards. She aims to determine what causes these neurons to be more active when animals are especially vulnerable to relapse, such as during times of intense stress or anxiety.

Benjamin Saunders, PhD Assistant Professor

612-626-5198 [email protected]

Dr. Saunders is an assistant professor of neuroscience and member of the UMN Center for Addiction Neuroscience and Medical Discovery Team on Addiction. His research explores how drug-associated cues in the environment engage the brain to trigger drug use and relapse, with the goal of identifying biological pathways that can be targeted to prevent these behaviors.

Steven Graves, PhD Assistant Professor

612-624-7335 [email protected]

Dr. Graves is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. His research is focused on the neurotoxic effects of particular psychostimulants like methamphetamine and their associations with neurodegenerative diseases.

Sade Spencer, PhD Assistant Professor

612-625-9929 [email protected]

Dr. Spencer is an assistant professor of Pharmacology. The broad goal of her research is to understand the synaptic mechanisms and neurocircuitry underlying drug addiction and comorbid neuropsychiatric diseases. More specifically, her research examines specific changes in synaptic transmission during and after drug self-administration. To accomplish this goal, her lab studies neuroadaptations and behavior in rodent models of addiction using standard approaches in protein biochemistry and behavioral pharmacology as well as incorporating novel techniques to genetically isolate specific cell types and circuits implicated in addiction.

Julia Lemos, PhD Assistant Professor

612-301-2540 [email protected]

Dr. Lemos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Her laboratory investigates how stress is processed and encoded in the brain. In particular, they interested in understanding how stress-associated neuropeptides regulate the function of neural circuits important for motivation and emotion in individuals with different life histories. Her laboratory also works to understand how chronic or traumatic stress renders the brain vulnerable to disease states such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. 

Mustafa al'Absi, PhD Professor

612-625-2214 [email protected]

Dr. al’Absi is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health, the Director of Duluth Global Health Research Institute. Dr. al’Absi has been leading a research program integrating basic, laboratory, and clinical methods to elucidate the mechanisms by which acute and chronic stress plays a role in addiction and relapse. An important, replicated finding from his program is the blunted hormonal stress response among smokers and other stimulant users, which manifests as enhanced basal pituitary-adrenocortical activity and decreased response to a range of stressors. This dysregulated pattern of response predicts early relapse. He is currently examining the role of endogenous opioids and cannabinoids in the blunting of the stress response in cannabis users and cigarette smokers.

Justin Anker, PhD Assistant Professor

612-273-9819 [email protected]

Dr. Anker received his PhD in Cognitive and Biological Psychology from the University of Minnesota. As a graduate student and postdoctoral trainee, Dr. Anker’s work focused on the biological and behavioral factors that influence vulnerability to addiction and treatment response. Dr. Anker’s current work focuses on translational research that combines methods of assessing biological stress with clinical addiction treatment methods.

Alfonso Araque, PhD Professor

612-806-3310 [email protected]

Dr. Araque is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. His research interests focus on the mechanisms, properties and physiological consequences of the communication between neurons and astrocytes. His research seeks to understand how the communication between neurons and astrocytes affects physiological and pathological aspects of brain function. While most studies on drug addiction are focused on neuronal mechanisms, his team aims to elucidate the involvement of astrocytes in behaviors associated with reward signaling and psychostimulant drugs, which may reveal astrocytes as potential targets for treatment of motivation disorders such as drug addiction.

Gavin Bart, MD, PhD Professor

612-873-9095 [email protected]

Dr. Bart is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota and director of the division of Addiction Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare. He is an internist and addiction medicine specialist. His areas of expertise include clinical pharmacology and the pharmacological management of opioid use disorders. His current research areas include the population pharmacokinetics of methadone, genetic influences of methadone pharmacology and treatment outcome, and improving strategies to integrate treatment of opioid use disorders into general medical settings. Dr. Bart is co-PI of NorthStar Node of the NIDA National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network and he is co-Director of the PEPFAR-SAMHSA funded Vietnam HIV-Addiction Technology Transfer Center. 

Miles Belgrade, MD Associate Professor

612-467-6336 [email protected]

Dr. Belgrade is a pain physician at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and Medical Director for Pain Tele-health at the VA. He also is a staff physician at the Minnesota Head & Neck Pain Clinic. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He has participated in the development of national guidelines for the management of neuropathic pain and chronic pain and has published widely on a broad spectrum of pain topics. Dr. Belgrade developed the DIRE Score, a tool used internationally to help clinicians determine who is an appropriate candidate for long-term opioid prescribing for chronic pain.

Angela Birnbaum, PhD, FAES Professor

612-624-3158 [email protected]

Dr. Birnbaum is a Professor in the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Director of Graduate Studies for the ECP Graduate Program. Her research examines the pharmacokinetic variability in drug exposure and response relationships in special populations.

Jazmin Camchong, PhD Assistant Professor

612-624-0134 [email protected]

Dr. Camchong investigates the neurobiological basis of addiction. Using neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, she studies the relationship between patterns of brain circuit activity and treatment outcome, and the ability of non-invasive brain stimulation methods to strengthen brain circuits that support abstinence. Her goal is to develop effective non-drug, non-invasive brain stimulation interventions that aid recovery from addiction and complement existing treatment programs.

Marilyn Carroll-Santi, PhD Professor

612-626-6289 [email protected]

Dr. Carroll is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. Her research is focused on factors that underlie drug and food addiction, such as genetic differences, impulsivity, and hormonal influences. As Director of a recent P50 Center grant, she conducts translational research with animal and human subjects on sex differences, stimulant addiction and novel treatments. Currently, she is developing animal models of novel self-initiated and -maintained long-term treatments for addiction with the translational goal of having addicted drug users manage their treatment and recovery over long periods of time.

Wei Chen, PhD Professor

612-625-8814 [email protected]

Dr. Chen is a Professor of the Departments of Radiology. His research at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) focuses on development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/spectroscopy (MRS) methodologies and technologies for non-invasively studying cellular metabolism, bioenergetics, function and dysfunction of the brain and other organs, which could be valuable for addiction research.

Zhe Chen, PhD Assistant Professor

612-624-3519 [email protected]

Dr. Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Her research investigates the development of nerve projections that regulate reward and motivation. Miswiring of these neural circuits can negatively impact self-control and addictive behaviors. Dr. Chen’s lab utilizes a combination of molecular, genetic, and imaging approaches.

Timothy Ebner, MD, PhD Professor and Head, Department of Neuroscience

612-626-9204 [email protected]

Dr. Ebner is a Professor and Head of the Department of Neuroscience. His laboratory is interested in how information in the brain is represented spatially and temporally in populations of neurons during behavior. 

Damien Fair, PA-C, PhD Professor, Department of Pediatrics

[email protected]

Dr. Fair's career has been devoted to studying the developing brain. He uses non-invasive techniques like MRI to understand and characterize fundamental principles of brain organization structure and function. In this context he applies these principles to characterize and understand the impact and predictors of addictive drugs in adolescence and young adulthood across populations and within individuals.

Carolyn Fairbanks, PhD Professor, College of Pharmacy

612-625-2945 [email protected]

Dr. Fairbanks is a professor of Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience and the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education of the College of Pharmacy. Dr. Fairbanks and her team investigate the spinal neuroplasticity underlying the development and maintenance of chronic pain. The spinal cord carries pain signals to the brain via excitatory neurotransmission and contains most of the same inhibitory neurotransmission systems as the brain. Dr. Fairbanks' team have applied their observations to the development of new pharmacological and gene therapeutics that are designed to provide pain relief while circumventing the neural circuits that lead to substance use disorders. Spinal delivery of therapeutics that inhibit transmission of the pain signal offers a site selective method of pain control. By targeting therapeutics to the spinal cord to control pain, exposure to brainstem and reward circuitry is limited. Such approaches greatly reduce the risk of overdose and addiction.

Brenna Greenfield, PhD Assistant Professor

218-726-7721 [email protected]

Dr. Greenfield is a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health on the Duluth Campus of the University of Minnesota Medical School. Her research focuses on substance use disorder treatment and recovery, with an emphasis on behavioral treatments such as mindfulness-based relapse prevention and motivational interviewing, mechanisms of behavior change, longitudinal health services research, and the promotion of health equity. She primarily collaborates with American Indian tribal nations.

Nicola Grissom, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

[email protected]

Using touchscreen behavioral testing and a suite of molecular and genetic techniques in mouse models, we work to uncover the molecular mechanisms in mesocorticolimbic regions that permit mice, and us, to learn new goal-directed behaviors, make decisions and choices between options, maintain motivation, and exert control over impulsive and habitual actions. Because these abilities are often altered in neuropsychiatric diseases, such as in substance use disorders and in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and ADHD, understanding the molecular regulators of neuronal ensembles mediating these abilities may reveal what makes these brains unique and identify new therapeutic avenues.

Andrew Harris, PhD Associate Professor

612-250-0863 [email protected]

Dr. Harris is a senior investigator at the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute and an Associate Professor in Medicine and Psychology at the University of Minnesota. His research involves the use of preclinical models to study the behavioral pharmacology of addiction to nicotine, opioids, and other drugs of abuse.

Dorothy Hatsukami, PhD Professor

612-626-2121 [email protected]

Dr. Hatsukami is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and is the Associate Director for the Masonic Cancer Center. Her research is focused on understanding tobacco addiction, testing novel tobacco cessation treatments and exploring ways to make currently marketed tobacco products less toxic, appealing and addictive. 

Carrie Haskell-Luevano, PhD Professor & Associate Department Head

612-626-9262 [email protected]

Dr. Haskell-Luevano is the Philip S. Portoghese Endowed Chair in Chemical Neuroscience, Professor Associate Department Head in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, and an Institute for Translational Neuroscience Scholar. Her research program focuses on the chemical biology of a variety of G protein-coupled receptors, including the opioid receptors. In her lab, projects involving the opioid receptors include the design and synthesis of novel probes and lead compounds, investigating ligand-receptor interactions, and exploring novel receptor signaling domains. By characterizing and modulating opioid receptor pharmacology, her work provides novel tools to probe pain management and advances ligand design strategies for opioid receptor based therapeutics.

Suhasa Kodandaramaiah, PhD Assistant Professor

612-626-6059 [email protected]

Dr. Kodandaramaiah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His laboratory focuses on engineering neurotechnologies to interface with the brain at multiple spatial and temporal scales. These include robotic tools for single cell recording and manipulation and #d printed polymer implants for large scale neural activity readout and perturbation.

Michael Kotlyar, PharmD Associate Professor

612-625-1160 [email protected]

Dr. Kotlyar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. His research focuses on evaluating various aspects of tobacco dependence including assessing medications to assist in the smoking cessation attempt and assessing the role of stress on smoking behavior.

Amy Krentzman, MSW, PhD Associate Professor

612-625-2312 [email protected]

Dr. Krentzman is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work. She studies the phenomenon of addiction recovery and therefore studies recovery-oriented systems of care such as sober living houses, 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, and recovery concepts such as spirituality and gratitude. Dr. Krentzman also designs interventions to support early recovery and prevent relapse. Her current work focuses on "Positive Peer Journaling" which uses a combination of positive psychology and behavioral activation.

Esther Krook-Magnuson, PhD Associate Professor

612-301-7747 [email protected]

Dr. Krook-Magnuson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Her work focuses on brain circuitry, including the different types of neurons in the brain and their responsiveness to drugs like opioids.

Matt Kushner, PhD Professor

612-273-9806 [email protected]

Dr. Kushner is a Professor of Psychiatry who studies the association of addiction and comorbid psychiatric disorders. His current research, funded by NIAAA, focuses on developing and testing cognitive behavioral treatments that can improve the alcohol use disorder treatment outcomes for individuals with co-occurring anxiety and depressive disorders.

Anna Lee, PhD Associate Professor

612-626-2859 [email protected]

Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of alcohol and nicotine co-addiction, and the role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in mediating alcohol and nicotine addiction. Recent interests also include the abuse liability of electronic cigarettes, and sex differences in nicotinic receptor function. 

Mark LeSage, PhD Professor

612-873-6857 [email protected]

Dr. LeSage is a Senior Investigator in the Department of Medicine at the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, and Professor in the Department of Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Minnesota. His research is primarily focused on the behavioral pharmacology of nicotine and tobacco, with a focus on using nonhuman drug self-administration and other models to address issues related to tobacco harm reduction and FDA regulation of tobacco products. He also employs nonhuman models to study the behavioral pharmacology of other drugs of abuse (cocaine, opioids) and develop immunotherapies (e.g. vaccines, antibodies) and other types of pharmacotherapies to treat drug abuse. 

Dezhi Liao, PhD Associate Professor

612-626-3522 [email protected]

The misuse of and addiction to prescribed and illegally obtained opioids has caused a national crisis that affects public health and welfare. Our research is focused upon the structural and functional deficits in dendritic spines caused by neurological diseases and disorders. We found that opioids caused collapse of dendritic spines, which are the fundamental structural units for information storage and processing in the brain. The opioid-induced changes in dendritic spines may contribute to opioid addictions as well as opioid-induced cognitive deficits.

Kelvin Lim, MD Professor

612-626-6772 [email protected]

Dr. Lim is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry where he holds the Drs. T.J. and Ella M. Arneson Land Grant Chair in Human Behavior. Dr. Lim’s research interest is in the use of neuroimaging approaches to identify circuit abnormalities in brain disorders such as schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury and addiction and then to use these circuits as treatment targets for noninvasive neuromodulation interventions.

Monica Luciana, PhD Professor

612-626-0757 [email protected]

Dr. Luciana is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her research examines brain/behavior relationships in adults and children and the neuroplasticity of neural circuitry during development, as a function of substance use, and in the context of psychopathology. Specifically, she is interested in the neurobiology of executive functions that are mediated by the brain's prefrontal cortex, including working memory, planning, and emotional control as well as reward processing and the neural circuits that promote incentive motivation.

Ezequiel Marron Fernandez de Velasco, PhD Assistant Professor

612-626-8480 [email protected]

Ezequiel Marron is an Assistant Professor (Academic Track) in the Department of Pharmacology and the Manager of the Viral Vector and Cloning Core and Viral Innovation Core at the University of Minnesota. Dr Marron is interested in understanding the neuroadaptations that occur in the mesocorticolimbic system after drug exposure, and the behavioral expression of such adaptations. Currently, his work focuses on plasticity involving inhibitory signaling regulated by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and G protein-gated inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels.  As Manager of the VVCC/VIC, he provides guidance to customers with viral vector design, and use, as well as support related to their grant applications.

Robert Meisel, PhD Professor

612-625-6796 [email protected]

Dr. Meisel is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. A key question addressed by his lab is what makes some people more vulnerable than others to the addictive effects of drugs? One idea he has been testing in an animal model of addiction vulnerability is that the converging neural plasticity of behavioral experience and drug use renders the brain more susceptible to the addictive properties of drugs.

Paul Mermelstein, PhD Professor

612-624-8977 [email protected]

Dr. Mermelstein is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. His laboratory researches sex differences in the brain. Specifically, how sex hormones (estrogen in females, testosterone in males) alter the synaptic connections in the brain to influence motivated behaviors. He and his team have discovered that when estrogen concentrations rise in females, their vulnerability to abuse addictive drugs increases. They are seeking to determine the mechanisms by which estrogens impart vulnerability to drug addiction, and ways to circumvent these changes in brain plasticity, ultimately in hopes of improving therapeutic interventions.

Jessica Nielson, PhD Assistant Professor

612-624-9469 [email protected]

Dr. Nielson is a neurobiologist and data scientist working at the intersection of computer science and psychiatry to understand the neurobiological mechanisms of mental health disorders that underlie addictive behaviors. She brings her expertise in neuroscience, big-data and precision medicine techniques to the group for data-driven discovery of clinically relevant models of addictive behaviors, with an interest in researching and developing novel therapies to treat the root causes of addiction.

Laura Palombi, PharmD, MPH, MAT, AE-C Assistant Professor

218-726-6066 [email protected]

Dr. Palombi is an Assistant Professor at the College of Pharmacy in Duluth. She works with rural community members and coalitions to find community-specific solutions to the opioid crisis and to capitalize on community recovery capital. She also works closely with public health, health professions, and harm reduction professionals to increase access to naloxone.

Cuong Q. Pham, MD Assistant Professor

[email protected]

Dr. Pham is a physician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He works clinically as a hospitalist at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and as a primary care physician at the Community University Health Care Center (CUHCC). His work on academic medical education in health equity as well as with the underserved communities in the Twin Cities has led him to focus on Community-Based Participatory Research. His current research is in collaboration with the local urban American Indian community to develop a culturally-centered and family-centered approach to opioid use disorder treatment in primary care settings.

Philip Portoghese, PhD Distinguished Professor

612-624-9174 [email protected]

The Portoghese Research Group is focused on the design and synthesis of compounds that target opioid receptors, both as pharmacologic tools and as agents for treatment of pain. Novel concepts and approaches are employed for development of analgesics that are highly selective for different types of opioid receptors. 

David Redish, PhD Professor

612-626-3738 [email protected]

Dr. Redish is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. He and his team explore the computational processes that underlie decision-making. His research addresses questions of addiction from the perspective of addiction as dysfunctions in those decision-making processes. His research interests span the neurophysiology of behavior, including computational, experimental, theoretical, and clinical approaches. His laboratory has major research efforts in theoretical explanations of the interactions of multiple decision-making systems, in the neurophysiology of the information processing in those decision-making systems, and in the clinical consequences of dysfunction in those decision-making systems. Through collaborations with other neuroscientists and psychologists translating their novel decision tasks to human populations, and clinicians testing consequences of their proposed explanations for dysfunction, Dr. Redish and his team explore the similarities and differences across species as a means of understanding addiction and its treatment.

Charles Reznikoff, MD Associate Professor

612-873-9780 [email protected]

Dr. Reznikoff practices in addiction medicine and is an addiction medicine doctor at Hennepin Healthcare. He is also an associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. He maintains a clinical addiction medicine practice, while he is actively involved in public advocacy and regulatory issues surrounding controlled substances at the state and federal level, including the opioid prescribing workgroup and the governor's medical cannabis task force. He teaches on addiction medicine and opioid prescribing practices at the University of Minnesota Medical and Dental schools.

Linda Rinehart, PhD Assistant Professor

612-273-9823 [email protected]

Dr. Rinehart is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in assessment and treatment for individuals with substance use disorders. Dr. Rinehart's research focuses on understanding how cannabis use impacts relapse to alcohol among patients with an alcohol use disorder. She also examines how cannabis use impacts treatment outcomes for mood, anxiety, and other drug use disorders.

Patrick Rothwell, PhD Assistant Professor

612-626-8744 [email protected]

Dr. Rothwell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. His research lab investigates the synaptic organization and behavioral function of basal ganglia circuits in health and disease. His interests include regulation of these circuits by endogenous opioid signaling, as well as the detrimental effects of chronic exposure to exogenous opioids, with a broad goal of reducing the abuse liability of opioid-based clinical therapies.

Mark Sanders Program Director

612-624-3454 [email protected]

Mark Sanders is the Program Director of the University Imaging Centers and member of the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction Structural Circuits Center. His efforts in multimodal imaging and sample preparation will help explore large areas of the intact brain at microscopic resolution with a goal to help investigators identify biological pathways that can be targeted to prevent addictive behaviors.

Robert J. Schumacher, PhD Scientific Director, Center for Translational Medicine

612-626-3533 [email protected]

Dr. Schumacher is the Scientific Director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Translational Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology. His research focuses on the preclinical testing and clinical translation of innovative drugs, biologics, cell therapies, and devices. 

Donald Simone, PhD Professor & Chair

612-625-6464 [email protected]

Dr. Simone is a Professor and Chair of the of Department of Diagnostic and Biological Sciences. His lab studies neural mechanisms underlying cancer pain, pain following chemotherapy, and pain associated with sickle cell disease. Studies are primarily focused on neural encoding of pain by primary afferent and spinal cord neurons, biochemical and molecular changes in DRG and spinal cord that contribute to persistent pain, and pharmacological modulation.

Sheila Specker, MD Associate Professor

612-273-9806 [email protected]

Dr. Specker is an Associate Professor and addiction psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry. She is Program Director for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship which trains physicians of all specialties in addiction and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Her research interests include screening and brief intervention for adolescents at risk for substance use disorder and also is co-investigator on the use of neuroimaging approaches to identify circuit abnormalities in addiction. Pharmacotherapies for the treatment of cocaine use disorder has also been a focus of research.

Laura Stone, PhD Professor

612-422-9880 [email protected]

Dr. Stone’s research team utilizes both pre-clinical models and patient populations to i) investigate the mechanisms driving low back and musculoskeletal pain, ii) optimize pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments (alone and in combination), iii) understand the impact of chronic pain on the CNS and iv) explore epigenetic regulation of chronic pain. Dr. Stone’s contributions include the development of animal models of low back pain to enable pre-clinical studies, demonstration that attenuating chronic pain can reverse pain-related changes in the CNS and peripheral tissues. The team was also the first to link epigenetic regulation of a single gene to a chronic pain condition in both rodents and humans. The Stone Pain Lab emphasizes studies that contribute towards improved therapeutic strategies for chronic pain that bypass addiction circuits. Dr. Stone is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology.

Heather Swanson, MD Assistant Professor

612-467-2228 [email protected]

Dr. Swanson works primarily as an Addiction Psychiatrist at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Program Director for the Addiction Psychiatry fellowship, and VA Site Director for the University's Addiction Medicine fellowship. In terms of research, she currently serves as Lead Site Investigator in a multicenter clinical trial, entitled "Comparative Effectiveness of Two Formulations of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder in Veterans (VA-BRAVE)".

Stanley Thayer, PhD Professor

612-626-7049 [email protected]

Dr. Thayer is a Professor of Pharmacology. His laboratory studies endocannabinoid signaling. Cannabinoids, analogs of the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, act on receptors that are part of this system. Current studies examine the role of the endocannabinoid system in regulating synaptic transmission, neuroinflammation, and neurotoxicity.

Phu Tran, PhD Assistant Professor

612-626-7964 [email protected]

Dr. Tran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. His research focuses on the role of epigenetics in long-term effects of early-life adversity on neural development. His lab has been investigating whether opioids exposure during pregnancy alters the epigenetic signatures of the infant’s cord blood stem cells and whether such change can be a determining factor for addictive behaviors in adolescence and adulthood.

Scott Vrieze, PhD Associate Professor

612-626-7569 [email protected]

Dr. Vrieze's lab investigates the etiology of addiction in humans in two ways. He partners with hundreds of investigators around the world to conduct large genetic association studies of millions of people to find genetic variants and genes that protect or predispose to addiction. The ultimate goal of this research is to identify specific biological and psychological risk factors for addiction, leading to novel therapeutics. He also partners with investigators at the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research to conduct longitudinal studies of the development of addiction and psychopathology. The goal is to understand the causes and consequences of addiction.

Lucy Vulchanova, PhD Associate Professor

612-626-5726 [email protected]

Research in the Vulchanova lab is focused on mechanisms underlying persistent pain. Our long-term goal is to contribute to the development of novel non-addictive chronic pain treatments. We are interested in elucidating the spinal circuits that mediate pain signaling, and in the discovery of novel signaling pathways involved in the development and maintenance of chronic pain. We are employing cutting-edge circuit-tracing, functional imaging, and transcriptomic approaches to investigate the organization of spinal pain circuits, and to quantify the contribution of novel signaling mediators (VGF-derived peptides) to chronic pain.

Michael Walters, PhD Research Associate Professor

612-626-6864 [email protected]

Dr. Walters is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. He is also a Director in the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development (ITDD), a full-service drug discovery and development unit within the College of Pharmacy. His research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of novel compounds for the treatment of pain without the abuse liabilities associated with opioids. He is currently collaborating on the development of a compound called MMG22 (Portoghese Laboratory) which shows promise for the non-addictive treatment of cancer pain.

Kevin Wickman, PhD Professor & Head of the Department of Pharmacology

612-624-5966 [email protected]

Dr. Wickman is a Professor and Department Head of the Department of Pharmacology. His research program seeks to elucidate inhibitory signaling pathways that regulate the excitability of neurons in the reward circuitry. His team's recent efforts have shown that inhibitory G protein-dependent signaling pathways in the ventral tegmental area and prefrontal cortex normally serve to limit addiction-related behaviors evoked by administration of opioids and psychostimulants, but that the influence of these pathways is diminished with repeated drug exposure. They employ intracranial viral genetic and pharmacologic approaches, together with electrophysiological and behavioral analyses, to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the reciprocal relationship between inhibitory signaling pathways in the reward circuitry and drugs of abuse. The premise behind their efforts is that if endogenous inhibitory signaling pathways can be strengthened to prevent their suppression by drugs of abuse, then the risk of addiction in susceptible individuals and/or relapse in recovering addicts might be reduced or prevented.

George Wilcox, PhD Professor, Department of Neuroscience

612-625-1474 [email protected]

Dr. Wilcox’s current research program has identified the cellular site and molecular mechanism mediating interdrug analgesic synergy in the central and peripheral terminals of nociceptors. His laboratory has most recently been funded to conduct preclinical development of a peripherally restricted, synergistic combination of two opioid agonists that shows high potency in multiple animal models of persistent pain. This analgesic combination manifests none of the troublesome effects of opioids mediated in the CNS, including addiction liability and respiratory depression.

Sylia Wilson, PhD Assistant Professor, McKnight Land-Grant Professor

612-624-1551 [email protected]

Dr. Wilson is a McKnight Land-Grant Assistant Professor in the Institute of Child Development. Her research examines the developmental etiology of psychopathology—the underlying processes that lead to the development and familial transmission of internalizing and externalizing problems, including addiction. Her research integrates developmental, clinical, and neuroscience methods, and takes a lifetime developmental perspective that includes the study of infants, children, adolescents, and adults. She uses study designs and populations that are causally and genetically informative, including longitudinal, high-risk family, and twin designs, and takes a multimodal approach that includes behavioral, observational, neurocognitive, psychophysiological, and magnetic resonance imaging methods.

• Ways to Engage

Who was Thomas Matthew Crooks? What we know about the Donald Trump rally shooter

A 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania has been identified as the suspect who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a political rally in the United States, law enforcement officials said.

Thomas Matthew Crooks has been named as the "subject involved" in the incident, the FBI said in a statement.

Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service snipers at the scene, was from Bethel Park, close to where the rally was held on Saturday local time.

Bethel Park School District confirmed in a statement that Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. 

This is what we know so far about the suspect and how the shooting played out. 

What do we know about the shooter?

Mr Trump was injured when multiple shots were fired at the stage, but the former president's campaign says he is doing "fine".

One attendee was killed and two critically injured in the incident, according to authorities. 

Crooks had not been attending the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

He is suspected of carrying out the attack from a rooftop on a building outside the event.

Witnesses said they alerted police to a gunman on the roof of the building, which was about 120 metres away from the stage where Mr Trump began giving an address at around 6:02pm (8:02am Sunday AEST).

They spotted the suspected shooter several minutes before shots rung out and Mr Trump fell to the ground, rising moments later with blood streaming down his face.

So far, the FBI has only released Crooks's name, age and where he lived. 

They earlier said the gunman was not carrying identification, so they analysed his DNA to provide a biometric confirmation of his identity. 

Bethel Park, where Crooks lived, is about an hour south of Butler. 

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday that the airspace over the Bethel Park was closed "effective immediately" for special security reasons.

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, according to a statement from the Bethel Park School District.

"Our school district will cooperate fully with the active law enforcement investigation surrounding this case, and as such, we are limited in what we can publicly disclose," the statement read.

"The school district wishes to express its sincere wishes for a speedy and complete recovery for Mr. Trump and those in attendance at the Saturday event who may have been physically harmed or emotionally impacted by these tragic events." 

He received a $US500 ($740) "star award" from the National Maths and Science Initiative , according to a local media report.

State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican and the upcoming election would have been the first time he was old enough to vote.

When Crooks was 17 he made a $US15 donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing.

The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national group that rallies Democrats to vote. The groups did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Crooks's father, Matthew Crooks, 53, told CNN that he was trying to figure out what happened and would wait until he spoke to law enforcement before speaking about his son.

What weapon was involved?

Two officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, saying an AR-style rifle was recovered at the scene.

AR-style rifles are common in mass shootings in the US, said Professor David Smith from the United States Studies Centre.

They are affordable, lightweight and semi-automatic, meaning they can fire multiple rounds quickly. 

Mr Trump was discussing border crossing numbers when the shots, at least five, were fired.

He released a statement on his Truth Social platform describing the moment he was struck.

"I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin," he wrote.

Up to a dozen of the deadliest mass shootings in the US since 2006 have involved an AR-15.

Semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 have been banned in the past, but are currently widely available in most states. 

President Joe Biden has been calling to reinstate a nationwide ban that expired in 2004.

"One of my fears is that even though most of the major assassination attempts of the 20th century actually led to significant advances in gun control, this one will not," Professor Smith told ABC News channel.

"This doesn't seem like a moment where Americans are going to ask themselves whether things have gone too far with this violence.

"Instead, this seems more like a moment that is going to accelerate the current polarisation."

Possible motives?

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, told reporters that it's too early to say whether the shooter acted alone and have not provided a motive.

But police do not believe there is "any other existing threat out there".

The FBI is calling for people with video of the event or information to share it with authorities.

Professor Claire Finkelstein from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said we are likely to learn more about possible motives in the coming days.

She noted there has been an increase in political violence. 

"We have seen an increase in violent rhetoric around political events of all sorts, and political cause," Professor Finkelstein told ABC News. 

"And the irony is, of course, that Trump himself has fomented some of this violent rhetoric. 

"I think this is a lesson to all of us about how dangerous it is for politicians to increase the violent rhetoric around their campaigns and around their causes."

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle have briefed President Joe Biden.

They are working with law enforcement partners to respond to and investigate the shooting, Mr Mayorkas said on X.

Republican US House Speaker Mike Johnson also said the House will conduct a full investigation of the attack on Trump's campaign rally.

"The American people deserve to know the truth," Mr Johnson said.

"We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP."

• X (formerly Twitter)

Related Stories

Two killed, two critical and a presidential candidate injured: how the shooting at donald trump's rally unfolded.

Witnesses say gunman was spotted on roof near rally minutes before Trump assassination attempt

The shooting took an instant but the attempt on Trump's life will be felt for years to come

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Psychology & Communication

Physical Address: 206 Student Health Center

Mailing Address: Psychology & Communication University of Idaho 875 Perimeter Drive MS 3043 Moscow, ID 83844-3043

Phone: 208-885-6324

Fax: 208-885-7710

Email: [email protected]

Web: Psychology and Communication

Associate Professor, Licensed Psychologist

Student Health Center 217

[email protected]

Department of Psychology & Communication University of Idaho MS 3043 Moscow, Idaho 83844-3043

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Mark Yama's teaching interests are in the areas of history of psychology, abnormal psychology, and the psychology of emotion. His research interests are in the nature of spiritual experience, and implications for psychology as a science.

College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences

Psychology and Communication Studies Department

• PSYC 311: Abnormal Psychology
• PSYC 415: History and Systems of Psychology
• PSYC 456: Psychology of Emotion

Dr. Yama received his PhD from Indiana University in 1975 in the area of sensory psychology. Following this he was a postdoctoral fellow, first at the University of Iowa, and then at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1982 he made a career shift and retrained as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin. Then followed the vehicle one year clinical internship, work as a director of a social service agency, and licensure as a psychologist. He came to the University of Idaho in 1987 and has taught classes in many topics, most recently history of psychology, abnormal psychology, and the psychology of emotion. In addition to academia, he has been involved in clinical practice, most centrally with chronic pain patients. His recent interest concerns spiritual experience, especially as found in psychotherapy patients. He is the author of The Spirit Transcendent: Exploring the Extraordinary in Human Experience.

Focus Areas

Mark Yama’s research interests are in philosophy of psychology and spirituality.

Selected Publications

• Yama, M. (2020). The spirit transcendent: Exploring the extraordinary in human experience. Toplight/McFarland Press.
• Curriculum Vitae pdf

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Clarence Thomas accepted a free yacht trip to Russia and got flown out on a complimentary helicopter ride to Putin's hometown, 2 Democratic senators say

• Democratic senators have accused Justice Clarence Thomas of accepting undisclosed gifts and trips.
• They say he accepted gifts such as a yacht trip to Russia and a chopper ride to Vladimir Putin's hometown.
• The senators want an investigation into potential tax fraud and ties between Thomas and Harlan Crow.

Two Democratic senators have accused Justice Clarence Thomas of accepting a free trip to Russian President Vladimir Putin's hometown.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon filed a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland on July 3, asking to open an investigation into the Supreme Court judge.

The letter said there was a "serious possibility of tax fraud" and accused Thomas of having "secretly accepted gifts and income potentially worth millions of dollars."

The letter's appendix , which lists 35 undisclosed gifts, shows a "yacht trip to Russia and the Baltics" and a "helicopter ride to Yusupov Palace, St. Petersburg," both listed under the year 2003.

St. Petersburg, Russia, is Putin's birthplace and where he grew up. The president now resides in Moscow.

The appendix list is titled "Likely Undisclosed Gifts and Income from Harlan Crow and Affiliated Companies." Harlan Crow is a real-estate developer and the former chairman and CEO of the Trammell Crow Company.

Related stories

The senators cited a ProPublica report from May last year detailing Thomas' hushed-up financial ties to Crow.

The report said that apart from the Russia trip, Crow also funded Thomas' grandnephew Mark Martin 's boarding-school fees, which cost "more than $6,000 a month."

In their letter, the senators wrote that other gifts from Crow included "multiple instances of free private jet travel, yacht travel, and lodging," as well as "gifts of tuition for Justice Thomas's grandnephew," "real estate transactions," "home renovations," and "free rent for Justice Thomas's mother."

In September, Thomas said he'd accepted three trips on a private plane owned by Crow . He didn't mention any other gifts.

Whitehouse and Wyden aren't the only Democrats who've voiced concerns over Thomas' sketchy financial ties.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York filed articles of impeachment against Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday.

"Justice Thomas and Alito's repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law," her statement reads.

Representatives for Thomas, Whitehouse, Wyden and Crow didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

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Kremlin says Biden was disrespectful of Putin and whole world noticed his gaffes

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Peru's convict ex-president Alberto Fujimori, 85, aims to run again

Alberto Fujimori, 85, who governed Peru with an iron fist for a decade and fled the country amid corruption scandals and human rights violations, plans to run for president amid a cloud of uncertainty and fractured politics.