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Franklin R. Amthor, PhD, is a professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Amthor's research interests evolved from his undergraduate electrical engineering background at Cornell University into artificial intelligence simulations involving Perceptrons, and then visual neuroscience. His Ph.D. work was done at Duke University in Biomedical Engineering on quantitative analysis of retinal ganglion cell responses. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at the School of Optometry at UAB, and then was an NEI R01 funded principal investigator who led a team determining the relationship between mammalian ganglion cell physiology, morphology, and central projections. More recently, he has worked on retinal circuitry underlying the responses of different retinal ganglion cell classes, and on assistive devices for the blind.
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Anne B. Theibert, PhD, is a professor of Neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Theibert is a researcher, teacher, and course director in both the UAB College of Arts and Sciences and School of Medicine (SoM). She received her B.A. in Chemistry from Goucher College, and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Neuroscience Department at Johns Hopkins, she was recruited to the SoM faculty at UAB in 1991, and directed an NIH-funded basic research program for 17 years, concentrating on cell signaling during neuronal development, with a focus on understanding pathways disrupted in neurodevelopmental disorders. In 2008, Dr. Theibert cofounded the UAB Undergraduate Neuroscience Program (UNP) and served as Director of the UNP during its first decade. She currently teaches neuroscience and nervous system development to UAB professional and graduate students, and directs and teaches undergraduate courses in cellular, molecular, systems and cognitive neuroscience.
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David G. Standaert, MD, PhD, is a professor and chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he holds the John N. Whitaker Endowed Chair in Neurology. He is a physician-scientist with interests in Parkinson disease and other disorders of movement. He received his A.B. with high honors from Harvard College, and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. He was a resident in neurology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a fellow in movement disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1995, and relocated to UAB in 2006. Currently he directs the NIH-funded Alabama Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson's Disease Research. He is Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the American Parkinson Disease Association, Deputy Editor of the journal Movement Disorders, a Fellow of both the American Neurological Association and the American Academy of Neurology, a Councilor of the Association of University Professors of Neurology, and a member of the NIH/NINDS Board of Scientific Counselors. His lab has a long-standing interest in the basic mechanisms underlying Parkinson disease as well as the complications of therapy.
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Erik D. Roberson, MD, PhD, is the Rebecca Gale endowed professor of Neurology and Neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Roberson is a physician-scientist whose research is dedicated to reducing the impact of age-related cognitive disorders. He received his A.B. with highest honors from Princeton University and then earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. He was a resident and chief resident in neurology at the University of California San Francisco, where he also completed a clinical fellowship in behavioral neurology. In addition to his laboratory focused on understanding mechanisms and identifying new treatments for dementia, Dr. Roberson directs the Alzheimer's Disease Center and the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics at UAB. He also cares for patients in the UAB Memory Disorders Clinic and leads clinical trials testing new dementia treatments.