RIA to Sponsor Lecture Series on Addictions-Related Topics

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) will present a spring seminar series featuring national experts discussing addictions-related topics beginning in April.

The three-part series is free and open to the public. It will be held from 10-11:30 a.m. on the first floor of the institute at 1021 Main Street on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

Jeanette Norris, Ph.D., senior research scientist at the University of Washington's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, will discuss "Thinking About Sex: Cognitive Mediation of Alcohol's Effects on Women's Sexual Decisions" on April 4. Norris' research focuses on how alcohol consumption influences cognitive mechanisms associated with sexual decision making, as well as sexual-assault resistance and perpetration. She is a co-recipient of the Ira and Harriet Reiss Theory Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality for her article, "Cognitive Mediation of Women's Sexual Decision Making: The Influence of Alcohol, Contextual Factors and Background Variables," in the Annual Review of Sex Research.

On April 25, Sara Jo Nixon, Ph.D., will present "Nicotine and Drugs: What Drives the Affair?" Nixon is a professor psychiatry and psychology at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Her current research is focused on neurocognition, nicotine and polysubstance abuse.

The series will close on May 9 with a presentation on "The Role of Dynorphin/Kappa Opioid Receptor in the Pathophysiology of Cocaine Addiction" by Toni S. Shippenberg, Ph.D., chief of the integrative neuroscience at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md., and an expert on the role of dynorphin neurotransmission and kappa-opioid receptor activation in mediating drug dependence toward psychostimulants and opiates. She is the editor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Neuroscience and Journal of Psychopharmacology.

For more information about the seminars, call 716-887-2566.

The Research Institute on Addictions has been a national leader in the study of addictions since 1970 and a research center of the University at Buffalo since 1999.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.