Dr. Theodore J. Voneida
At the third FOCAS seminar, '95
- Professor and Chairman of Neurobiology, Northeastern Ohio Universities
College of Medicine.
Ph.D. Cornell University.
Awards: An award in 1974 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
for a major role he has played in bringing about state and federal
strip-mine legislation, and an invitation to the White House from
President James Carter for the signing of a Federal Strip Mine
Control bill;
A national Excellence in Teaching award -- the most recent award
among a number of awards for teaching.
- Books: A Computer Graphic Text in Neurobiology, designed to provide
an animated, 3-D view of the CNS for students interested in
the anatomy and physiology of the human central nervous system.
- As a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Roger Sperry's laboratory at
Caltech, Dr. Voneida began a series of studies on interhemispheric
information transfer. Most of these related to conditional learning
and perceptual phenomena in split-brain cats and were continued
during his tenure as Professor of Anatomy at Case Western Reserve
University College of Medicine (1962-1976). In 1976, he became the
first Chairman of the newly established Department of Neurobiology
at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.
Current research in his laboratory involves studies of neuronal
substrates of learning and memory, utilizing a conditioned limb
flexion model. Anatomic, behavioral and neurochemical analyses are
being carried out on CNS pathways involved in the mediation of
learned behavior.
Dr. Voneida has been active in areas of social concern for the
past 25 years. These include a weekly radio program in Cleveland, Ohio
entitled The Other View (1972-73) in which he discussed the
story of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He has been actively involved
for the past 8 years in a program which assists El Salvadoran refugees
who are attempting to get to Canada to avoid death squads in their
own country. In March, 1991, he attended an international conference
on health care for Central America in Managua, Nicaragua.
In November, 1992, he attended the first meeting of a group of
internationally known scientists in Trieste, Italy, for the purpose
of writing The First Magna Carta of Duties. The meeting was
called by Dr. Rita Levi-Montaicini, and Dr. Voneida chaired the
first session, representing Professor Roger Sperry, who was unable
to attend.
- He has given numerous courses in Neurobiology for the past 30 years,
and recently developed a graduate level course entitled Teaching
in the Biomedical Sciences. He has also been involved in several
programs for elementary and secondary school students who are
interested in neurobiology.
