Thomas Carew, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at New York University, is an American
neuroscientist
A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...
whose interests center on the behavioral, cellular, and molecular analyses of learning and memory. His work provides provide empirical support for the idea that different temporal phases of memory consolidation can be best identified not by their different temporal domains, but by their molecular signatures.
Education
Carew obtained his Ph.D. from the
University of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...
in 1970.
Career
He then joined the laboratory of Eric Kandel as a postdoctoral fellow at the
New York University School of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...
. In 1974, he moved with the group to
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he became a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry. In 1983, he moved to
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
as the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology and Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. He served as chair of the Department of Psychology for six years.
In 2000, Carew became the Bren Professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...
. In 2011 he became the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science and a member of the Center for Neural Science at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
.
Research
Early in his career, in collaboration with
Eric Kandel
Eric Richard Kandel (; born Erich Richard Kandel, November 7, 1929) is an Austrian-born American medical doctor who specialized in psychiatry, a neuroscientist and a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surge ...
and colleagues, Carew provided the first evidence in
Aplysia californica
The California sea hare (''Aplysia californica'') is a species of sea slug in the sea hare family, Aplysiidae.Rosenberg, G.; Bouchet, P. (2011). Aplysia californica J. G. Cooper, 1863. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http:// ...
—the California sea slug—for both long-term memory and associative learning in this model system. Carew subsequently developed four lines of research that provide mechanistic insights into learning and memory.
First, he was able to dissociate several different types of memory on both behavioral and synaptic levels, showing, for example, in contrast to a prevailing theoretical view, that it is possible to induce both intermediate-term and long-term synaptic changes underlying memory in the absence of short-term changes. Second, he developed experimental methods which permit independent analysis of somatic and synaptic compartments of identified neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) that are involved in memory formation showing, for instance, that local protein synthesis at the synapse is essential for the induction of intermediate-term memory. Third, he has identified three mechanistically distinct phases of synaptic facilitation in the CNS, each of which predicted the existence and molecular features of distinct temporal phases of behavioral memory. Finally, in more recent work, he has identified the contribution of a number of specific molecular cascades, as well as their interactions, in the induction and consolidation of different forms of memory.
[Philips, G.T., Ye, X, Kopec, A., and Carew, T.J. (2013) MAPK establishes a molecular context that defines effective training patterns for long-term memory formation, Journal of Neuroscience 33 (17): 7565-7573]
Carew's research contributions all connect specific synaptic and molecular events to bona fide instances of memory expressed behaviorally.
Honors
Carew is the recipient of a
National Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...
(NIMH) MERIT Award, an NIMH Career Development Award, Yale's Dylan Hixon Prize for Excellence in Teaching in the Natural Sciences, and the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award at the University of California, Irvine.
He is an elected Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
and was chair of its Neuroscience Section; he was president of the Society for Neuroscience; he is an elected Fellow of Division 6 of the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
(APA) and an APA Distinguished Scientist Lecturer; and he is an elected Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carew, Thomas J.
American neuroscientists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Presidents of the Society for Neuroscience