John J. Hablitz, longtime professor in the UAB School of Medicine, has been named interim chair of the Department of Neurobiology. “I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as interim chair for the outstanding members of the Neurobiology Department,” Hablitz said.
J. David Sweatt, Ph.D., who has served as Neurobiology department chair the past 10 years, will leave UAB to chair the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. Hablitz previously served as interim department chair before Sweatt joined UAB in early 2006. The search for a permanent chair will begin this fall.
“Dr. Hablitz brings a wealth of experience to this interim role, based on his more than 25 years here at UAB,” said Selwyn M. Vickers, M.D., senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the UAB School of Medicine.
Hablitz is a highly regarded scientist in the cellular neurophysiology of epilepsy and synaptic plasticity. His lab uses studies on synaptic transmissions to further understand basic biophysical properties of mammalian central neurons and to explore the pathophysiology of experimental epilepsy.
Hablitz came to UAB in 1989 as a professor of Physiology and Biophysics, and has been a professor and vice chair in the Department of Neurobiology since the department was founded in 1996. He holds additional secondary appointments in the Departments Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology and Psychology, as well as roles in the UAB Civitan International Research Center, General Clinical Research Center and the Center for Glial Biology in Medicine.
He earned his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 1968 and his masters (1970) and doctorate (1972) degrees in psychology from the University of Houston before completing postdoctoral training in neurophysiology at the Baylor College of Medicine. He joined the faculty at Baylor in 1974, where he stayed until joining UAB in 1989.