National Academy of Medicine Elects APS Fellow Ted Abel

APS Fellow Ted Abel of the University of Iowa is among four psychological scientists newly elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Abel is recognized for his work on the interplay of sleep and memory formation and storage, and the molecular basis of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, including autism.

Abel is Professor and Chair of UI’s Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology and Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. He is director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute at the university. He has co-authored over 200 scientific papers, and his research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Simons Foundation, the Department of the Army, the National Science Foundation, the Human Frontiers Science Program, the Whitehall Foundation, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Other psychological scientists elected to NAM along with Abel include C. David Amaral (University of California, Davis), who has discovered fundamental principles of memory, emotion, social behavior, and brain plasticity, and also has contributed seminal insights on autism spectrum disorder and other psychiatric disorders; and Rachel Yehuda (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), who identified a unique neurobiology of PTSD and provided a roadmap for understanding response variation following trauma exposure. APS Member Peter A. Ubel (Duke University), an MD whose research on health care decision-making has revealed the unconscious and irrational forces that influence patients’ and physicians’ choices, is also an electee.

Election to the NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. This year, the NAM elected 90 national and 10 international members. New members are elected by current members.