Thomas Green, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Mary and J. Palmer Saunders Professor for Excellence in Teaching
UT System Distinguished Teaching Professor

Physical address:
Truman Graves Blocker, Jr. Medical Research Building, 7.102c
224 11th St.
Galveston, TX 77555

Mailing address:
301 University Boulevard
Galveston, TX 77555-1059

Email: thgreen@utmb.edu

  • Dr. Thomas Green received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Kentucky under Dr. Michael Bardo and completed his postdoctoral training at UT Southwestern Medical Center with Dr. Eric Nestler, both world-renowned scientists in the field of addiction. He was recruited to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in 2009 and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. He is the Mary and J. Palmer Saunders Professor for Excellence in Teaching. He serves as an associate member of the Pharmacology & Toxicology, Neuroscience, and Human Pathophysiology & Translational Medicine graduate programs. He is also a member of the Center for Addiction Research and the Palermo-UTMB Joint PhD Program faculty. He also co-founded the Mental Health Research Group at UTMB.

    Dr. Green’s research program focuses on complex psychiatric conditions, such as addiction, depression, and anxiety, that are a function of interactions between genes and the environment.  His current research using preclinical animal models focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying protective addiction and depression phenotypes that could be of therapeutic value for these disorders.  Dr. Green’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2010, with multiple R01 and R03 grants. He has published 67 peer-reviewed journal articles and has served as a reviewer for over 35 scientific journals.

    • 2002 – PhD, Experimental Psychology, University of Kentucky
    • 2000 – MS, Experimental Psychology, University of Kentucky
    • 1996 – BS, Psychology, Texas A&M University

  • The role of frustration in neuropsychiatric conditions

    Tolerance to frustrating events is important for a number of neuropsychiatric conditions. For example, people with substance use disorders are more susceptible to frustration. We have developed a way to measure frustration state in real time during operant responding for drug or non-drug reinforcers in rats. With this new tool we can assess individual differences in sensitivity to frustration and begin to pick apart the neurobiological pathways and substrates of frustrative non-reward in addiction-, depression-, and anxiety-related behavior.

    • Dept. of Pharmacology and Toxicology
    • Center for Addiction Sciences and Therapeutics
    • Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases