William Howe

William Howe is an Assistant Professor at the School of Neuroscience, Virginia Tech, where he joined in Fall 2019. He earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan under Martin Sarter, followed by industry experience at Pfizer and postdoctoral training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai with Paul Kenny.

• Education: Ph.D. University of Michigan

His research focuses on neurobiological mechanisms underlying reward learning, motivation, and executive control, particularly how dysregulation in orexin, cholinergic, and dopaminergic systems contributes to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. His lab employs multidisciplinary methods, including optogenetics, viral gene manipulation, and optical neural activity measurement.

Recent publications highlight his work on nicotine addiction, depression, and attention resilience, with trends spanning cholinergic signaling, striatal networks, and gene-editing applications. Key journals include Nature, Nature Neuroscience, and Current Biology.