UAB Synopsis, Vol. 25, No. 25, June 19, 2006
UAB Vice President for Medicine and Dean of the UAB School of Medicine Robert R. Rich, MD, welcomes James H. Meador-Woodruff, MD, as chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology and congratulates him on his appointment to the Heman E. Drummond Endowed Chair of Psychiatry.
On April 1, Dr. Meador-Woodruff succeeded Director of Geriatric Psychiatry and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs F. Cleveland Kinney, PhD, MD, who served as interim chair for almost 5 years. “I would like to thank Dr. Kinney for his outstanding tenure as interim chair,” Dr. Rich says.
Prior to joining the UAB faculty, Dr. Meador-Woodruff was professor, vice chair, and associate chair for research of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, one of the top 10 departments in the country. He directed the department’s Residency Research Track and codirected the Residency Clinical Scholar’s Track. He also ran a large and well-funded research laboratory — most of which moved with him to UAB — and was research professor in the Molecular and Behavioral Neurosciences Institute.
A graduate of the University of Richmond, Dr. Meador-Woodruff received his MD degree from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He completed his psychiatry residency and a postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatry at the University of Michigan.
Author of more than 100 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and hundreds of other scholarly works, Dr. Meador-Woodruff’s research is supported by eight grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Stanley Foundation, and others. He serves as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neural Transmission, BMC Psychiatry, and Schizophrenia Research, in addition to being editor of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s scientific Web site.
His honors and awards include an A. E. Bennett Neuropsychiatric Research Foundation Award, a Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum Rafaelsen Fellowship Award, and a Young Investigator Award from the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research.
Dr. Meador-Woodruff’s research focuses on understanding how different parts of the brain communicate via chemical signals and how severe mental illness disrupts this communication, with a particular emphasis on schizophrenia. Specifically, he studies neurochemical circuitry and gene expression in people with schizophrenia.
“I am delighted to be at UAB and particularly excited about Dean Rich’s vision for a Comprehensive Neuroscience Center,” he says. Dr. Meador-Woodruff plans rapidly to expand the Department of Psychiatry’s research base so the department will become a key member of the neuroscience research community.