Brian Thomas
Chair, Psychology Department
Professor of Psychology
Post-doc, University of Massachusetts in Amherst
Ph.D., M.S. in Experimental Psychology, Texas Christian University
Contact:
(440) 826-2165, bthomas@bw.edu
Dr. Brian Thomas completed the doctoral program in experimental psychology at Texas Christian University. His dissertation research focused on the neuropharmacology of reward processing using pigeons as a model system. He completed his postdoctoral work at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he investigated how fears become learned and how to effectively eliminate them using rats as a model system.
He also served as an invited researcher at the Max Plank Institute in Dresden, Germany. Since assuming his position in BW's department of psychology, Thomas has continued to explore new research questions related to anorexia, autism and the gut-brain axis. His research has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and he has received extensive grant support for it. Lastly, Dr. Thomas brings extensive leadership to the psychology department having served in a variety of administrative positions with the American Psychological Association and the Council on Undergraduate Research.