Thomas W. Abrams

Thomas W. Abrams is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland. He also holds a secondary appointment in Anesthesiology. With a research career spanning decades, Dr. Abrams focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of learning and memory using the marine mollusk Aplysia as a model organism. His work has contributed to understanding synaptic plasticity, neuromodulation, and transcriptomics.

• B.A. in Biology from Carleton College (1972)
• Ph.D. in Zoology and Physiology from University of Washington (1981)
• Postdoctoral training in Neurobiology at Columbia University (1986)

Dr. Abrams' research centers on associative and non-associative learning, notably identifying adenylyl cyclase as a coincidence detector in memory formation. His recent work includes developing a behavioral task to study attention in Aplysia and leading the assembly of the Aplysia transcriptome, one of the most complete for non-genomic species. Publications highlight interdisciplinary approaches combining molecular biology, neuroscience, and computational modeling.

• 2008 Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Education
• 2008 Teacher of the Year
• 2012 USM Regents' Faculty Award for Teaching

Dr. Abrams co-founded the Proseminar in Hypothesis Testing and Experimental Design, a graduate training program that has been adopted nationally to enhance critical thinking skills. His collaborative projects, including work with the Institute of Genome Sciences, emphasize bioinformatic innovations for single-cell transcriptome analysis in Aplysia neurons.