UAB Synopsis, Vol. 25, No. 24, October 9, 2006

Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine Director Richard M. Allman, MD, announces the appointment of J. David Sweatt, PhD, as associate director of UAB’s Center for Aging and director of the center’s Neuroscience and Aging Research Program. Dr. Sweatt will work closely with Center for Aging leadership to enhance programs involving the more than 175 faculty members affiliated with the center.

Dr. Sweatt joined UAB as Department of Neurobiology chair in February 2006. An internationally recognized expert on biological mechanisms underlying learning and memory, he holds the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory.

His research focuses on signal transduction mechanisms in learning and memory. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Health Assistance Foundation, and McKnight Foundation, among others. Numerous honors include a Klingenstein Award in the Neurosciences, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Independent Investigator Award, and a Texas Advanced Technology Program Award.

Dr. Sweatt received his doctorate in pharmacology from Vanderbilt University in 1986. For the following 3 years, he was a research associate at Vanderbilt and then at Columbia University, where he worked with the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, Eric R. Kandel, MD. Dr. Sweat was professor of neuroscience and director of the neuroscience graduate program at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, where he was a faculty member from 1989 to 2005.

He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Neuroscience, among other scientific journals, and is author or coauthor of numerous publications. Dr. Sweatt also is an accomplished artist, capturing on canvas the complexities of molecules and neural circuits.