Thomas J. Gould

Thomas Gould, Ph.D. is currently the Jean Phillips Shibley Professorship of Biobehavioral Health and Department Head of Biobehavioral Health in the College of Health and Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University. He joined Penn State after 16 years at Temple University where he was a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Program in Neuroscience. Dr. Gould received his Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience at Indiana University in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Steinmetz. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado with Dr. Paula Bickford and a Research Associate at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado with Dr. Jeanne Wehner. Dr. Gould’s integrative research uses genetic, pharmacological, behavioral, and molecular biological techniques to study the neurobiology of learning and memory and the effects of addiction on it. Current research focuses on identifying the cellular, molecular, and epigenetic events that underlie the effects of nicotine on learning and memory with a specific emphasis on how those effects change as drug administration transitions from acute to chronic drug use and how adolescence may change sensitivity to these effects of nicotine. He has over 150 publications and has had continuous NIH funding for the last 15 years. Dr. Gould received the Pavlovian Research Award in 2017. In 2018, he received the Evan G. and Helen G. Pattishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award for the College of Health and Human Development. In 2012, he received the Temple University Eberman Faculty Research Award and in 2010, he received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Gould is a Fellow in the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Sciences. He was elected President of Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in 2014 and served as the Chair of grant review panel for Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior, National Institute of Health/Center for Scientific Review for two years. He is also a section editor for the journal Neuropharmacology.