This year’s Spring Seminar Series at UB’s Research Institute on Addictions will focus on the topics of smoking and alcohol.

The series kicks off on March 27 with a talk by Larry Hawk, UB professor of psychology, titled “A Learning-Based Approach to Improving Smoking Cessation with Medication.”

Hawk’s research focuses on two common externalizing psychological problems: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cigarette smoking. His work integrates neuroscience, experimental psychopathology and clinical trial approaches to improve understanding of learning and cognitive processes in the development and maintenance of ADHD and smoking, as well as evaluate treatment mechanisms and develop more effective interventions.

On April 24, RIA will host Dominic J. Parrott, associate professor of psychology at Georgia State University, who will discuss “Using Laboratory Methods to Inform Interventions for Alcohol-Related Aggression.”

Parrott’s research interests include alcohol-related aggression, intimate partner aggression, gender-role adherence and aggressive behavior, and aggression against women and sexual minorities. He is an associate editor for the journal Psychology of Violence and editorial board member of the journal Aggressive Behavior.

The series will conclude May 22 with a visit from Lorenzo Leggio of the National Institutes of Health, who will speak on “Neuropharmacological Treatments for Alcoholism: Update on Recent Clinical Findings.”

Leggio is chief of the joint National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-National Institute on Drug Abuse Section on Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. He also is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University. His clinical research is primarily focused on the pharmacological treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and on the medical consequences of AUD, specifically liver disease.

All seminars will take place at 10 a.m. in Room 132 at RIA, 1021 Main St., on UB’s Downtown Campus. They are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact seminar coordinator Rebecca Houston at 887-2579 or rhouston@ria.buffalo.edu, or visit RIA's website.