James Meador-Woodruff, M.D., Heman E. Drummond professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the UAB School of Medicine, has been named the recipient of the 2013 Research Mentorship Award of the American Psychiatric Association.

The award is presented annually to one academic psychiatrist who has, in a significant traditional or innovative manner, fostered the pursuit of trainee research within his university department. 

Considerations for receiving this award include both direct mentorship of individual students and the promotion of novel research-oriented training activities within a department or residency program. The American Psychiatric Association is the world’s largest psychiatric organization, representing more than 33,000 psychiatric physicians from the United States and around the world.

This is not Meador-Woodruff’s first recognition for mentoring. He was awarded the 2007 Kempf Fund Award for research development in psychobiological psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education. The award recognizes a senior researcher who has made a significant contribution to research on the causes and treatment of schizophrenia as both a researcher and a mentor.

Meador-Woodruff joined the UAB faculty in 2006. His primary research interest is on understanding how different parts of the brain communicate with other parts via a variety of chemical signals, and how this communication is disrupted in schizophrenia.  His current focus is on studying the expression of genes within individual cells in the nervous system, and exploring abnormalities of receptor trafficking in the brain in schizophrenia.


To read the full interview with Meador-Woodruff, visit the UAB eReporter.