Lynn Wecker, PhD is Distinguished University Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, and Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; Director, Laboratory of Neuropsychopharmacology, University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa. She is the author of Brody’s Human Pharmacology: Mechanism-Based Therapeutics, 6th Edition.

Dr. Wecker earned her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Florida. After serving in positions at Vanderbilt and the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, she moved to the University of South Florida, where she served as Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics from 1991 to 2006, and was appointed Distinguished Research Professor in 1995.

Dr. Wecker seeks to understand how brain chemistry affects or determines behaviors with an emphasis on the etiology and treatment of neuropsychiatric and neuromotor disorders. Her current studies are investigating the role of neuronal nicotinic receptors in ataxia, and mechanisms mediating the neurotrophic actions of nicotinic agonists. Concurrent investigations are elucidating the role of these receptors in mediating both nicotine and alcohol addiction, and how perturbations in receptor expression during adolescence can predispose the adult brain to drug-seeking behavior.

Dr. Wecker’s numerous honors and awards include the Outstanding Faculty Award, USF; Fifth Annual Theodore M. Brody Distinguished Lecturer, Michigan State University; Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Interprofessionalism Award, USF Health School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences; Presidential Faculty Award for Excellence, USF; and more.

Dr. Wecker has served in several elected positions for both the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.