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College of Pharmacy

Alkadhi Retires After 40 Years at College

Teacher, Researcher Recognized as Expert in Neuropharmacology

January 19, 2022 —
alkadhi and pps faculty and staff

January 19 — After four decades of teaching, research and service to the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, professor Karim A. Alkadhi, Ph.D., retired from the college Jan. 15.

During his 40-year career at UHCOP, Alkadhi largely focused his research efforts on the effects of stimuli and suppressors such as caffeine, nicotine, exercise, stress and sleep deprivation on cognitive function and the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

alkadhi headshotHe authored or coauthored over 150 research papers and review articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Among them are the Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Physiology (London), International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, European Journal of Neuroscience, Sleep, Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite Edition, Brain Research, and Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. In addition, he authored or contributed to more than 100 presentation abstracts at national and international meetings.

Prior to his retirement, he was designated by Expertscape as a "World Expert" in the "Hippocampal CA1 Region" subject area (placing him among top 0.1% of scholars worldwide writing on the topic) and an "Expert" in "Dentate Gyrus" subject area.

Alkadhi played major roles in the development of the Pharm.D. toxicology course and the Ph.D. neuropharmacology course, and he was honored for excellence in teaching by the college several times. He served as major advisor for more than a dozen Ph.D. and M.S. graduate students at the college. 

Alkadhi and his wife, Ann L. Bragdon, Ph.D., M.A., established a presidential endowed fellowship for pharmacology graduate students. Alkadhi and Bragdon were inducted into the college's Mading Society of benefactors in 2010.

Alkadhi joined the college as an assistant professor in 1981. He earned his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Baghdad, Iraq; his master's degree in pharmacy form the University of Connecticut; and his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

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