The Developmental/Pilot component of the proposed VCTRS will be led by VCTRS co-director, John Hughes, MD. Dr. Hughes, Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Family Practice, has received numerous national and international awards for his research and scholarship, including the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco's prestigious ,Ovid Ferno Award, and is among the most cited investigators in tobacco control research. He was a seminal investigator on smoking cessation among individuals with comorbid other substance use disorders and has directed 18 NIH awards on this and other areas in tobacco and addictions research. He currently is PI on 5 NJH research awards. He is a founding member and former president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and currently co-directs their Training Network for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and Junior faculty. His research interests include all aspects of tobacco and nicotine dependence as well as other forms of drug dependence. His position at the forefront of tobacco research makes him well positioned to provide leadership in the identification of innovative developmental projects in areas of emerging interest to the NIH and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products. He will be assisted by VCTRS director Dr. Higgins, who holds the rank of Professor in UVM's Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, and for the past 8 years has served as Vice Chair of Research within the Department of Psychiatry. He also currently directs the UVM Department of Psychiatry's Center for Substance Abuse Research and Treatment and for the past 26 years has co-directed with Dr. Hughes the Human Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory (HBPL). For more than 22 years Dr. Higgins has served as director or co-director with Dr. Hughes of an NIH T32 training grant in the behavioral pharmacology of drug dependence awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Together they are well prepared to lead this effort.
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