Thomas HudzikDr. Hudzik received his BA in experimental psychology from Rutgers College, and his MS and PhD from the University of New Orleans in Biological Psychology and Pharmacology in 1990. His Master's and Dissertation work focused upon how drug-drug interacions could elucidate mechanism of action of novel opioids. He had a highly productive fellowship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where, under the guidance of Drs. McMillan and Wenger, he developed novel behavioral assays that addressed how drugs disrupt temporal perception, which was also useful in detecting antidepressant activity and neurotoxicity. Additionally, Dr Hudzik's postdoctoral work also addressed how drugs of abuse could interfere with working memory across multiple species such as primate, pigeon, rat and mouse. After his fellowship, he began his 22-year career in the pharmaceutical industry at Fisons Pharmaceuticals in Rochester, NY, which was later acquired by Astra AB, Sweden, then ultimately became AstraZeneca. He has worked to model and to identify novel targets on such diverse disease areas as substance use disorder, appetite suppression, epilepsy, stroke, neuroprotection, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. During this time, he led research teams which delivered four candidate drugs into clinical development. He accepted a position at Abbott Labs in 2010 (now AbbVie), to develop an abuse liability strategy for the company, and leads a cross-functional team that addresses CNS safety concerns within projects. Dr Hudzik has authored more than 60 original research papers, and edited and contributed to 2 books. He is a member of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the List Committee of the World Anti-Doping agency, the Society for Neuroscience, the Behavioral Pharmacology Society, a reviewer of manuscripts for numerous journals, and is a very active participant in inter-company consortia supporting prediction of risk associated with abuse liability of novel drugs or the potential for psychiatric complications such as suicidal behavior, as well as two directed at discovery of early biomarkers for neurotoxicity. He enjoys teaching, and has served as an instructor for undergraduates, medical and nursing students, as well as presents on neuroscience topics to grammar school children. When not writing for science, Dr. Hudzik also enjoys writing fiction and poetry, running marathons, and brewing beer - usually not at the same time. Read More Read Less